Firefighters in the Westhoek area of West Flanders were kept busy on Sunday evening as heavy rain caused flooding. The Fire Service received numerous calls to deal with flooding in Ieper, Poperinge, Diksmuide and Koekelare. Kristof Louagie of the Westhoek Fire Service told VRT News that his team attended more than 20 flood-related callouts.
The heavy rain started at around 6pm on Sunday evening. Soon the Westhoek Fire Service received the first calls of the evening from the public to deal with flooding.
“By around 8 p.m we had already had 16 callouts. Most of them were typical situations related to heavy rain such as pipes and sewers overflowing. Fortunately, there were no major incidents”.
Flooded streets and cellars
Some streets were flooded. This was the case at, among other places, the Westhoekweg, Korte Reningelststraat and Vlamertingseweg in Poperinge. Streets around Diksmuide and Koekelare were also flooded too.
A house was flooded on the Professor Dewulfstraat in Poperinge and on the Woumenweg in Woumen. In Diksmuide an overflowing gutter threatened to flood a garage. Here as elsewhere in the Westhoek area firefighters were able to prevent any serious damage from being caused.