West and East Flanders and parts of Hainaut were the hardest by last night’s storm. Heavy rain caused flooding at several locations with as much as 50 litre of rain per M² having fallen in just a couple of hours. Streets in towns and municipalities including Wervik, Heuvelland (both West Flanders), Zottegem (East Flanders) and Comines (Hainault) were flooded.
In the area around Wervik and Comines between 50 and 80 litres of water per M² fell in just a couple of hours. Fire services in West Flanders received hundreds of calls to deal with flooding.
In Wervik around 20 streets were flooded. In the Esdoorn area of the town some streets were under a metre of water. As the houses there are raised from street level no homes were flooded a fire service spokesman told VRT News.
A few kilometres away in hamlet of De Klijte the heavy rain caused a mud stream with rivers of mud from the fields that surround De Klijte flowing into people’s homes.
The Fire Service deployed sandbags and one local resident even got out his digger to deepen the ditches around De Klijte so that they were better able to cope with the downpour.
In the west of Hainaut Province too the Fire Service was very busy dealing with storm related issues.
The Wapi Local Fire Service that serves the west of Hainaut Province received around 80 call outs to deal with issues such as blocked sewers and flooded streets. In Tournai a fast-food restaurant was flooded.
Dry today, a lot of rain tomorrow
It is likely to remain dry today (Wednesday). However, tomorrow (Thursday) more rain is forecast. The front bringing the rain will enter the country from the west. However, most of the rain will fall in central and eastern areas. This could be accompanied by thunderstorms.