Severe weather conditions affected the region, with central Bournemouth the hardest hit after heavy rain started yesterday morning at around 6am.

Wessex Water said it had drafted in extra staff to help deal with the flooding, but that the majority of the floods were the result of surface water rather than flooded sewers, although some sewer flooding did occur as a result.

It added that many of the council owned high-way drains had struggled to cope with the high volumes of water and called the incident a “capacity issue”.

A spokesperson for Wessex Water said: “An unprecedented amount of rainfall led to highway drains being overwhelmed resulting in localised surface water flooding in the Bournemouth and Poole area.

“While there were no operational failures of the sewerage network, drains struggled to cope with the exceptional amount of rainfall that fell throughout the morning.

“We have drafted in extra staff to help customers who have suffered flooding and have liaised with council highways departments to see if we can help deal with any problems affecting local roads.”

The Met Office recorded 2.1 inches of rain in the Springbourne area of Bournemouth and 2.3 inches in Portland between 4am and 1pm yesterday.

Carys Matthews

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