By Tom Rogers
HOMEOWNERS in Mossley have been left devastated following the recent flooding of the Tameside area in Greater Manchester.
It was the worst flooding in living memory for most residents, as hundreds of homes were affected, with numerous streets turned into a raging torrent as major roads were cut off when a months’ worth of rain fell in just a few hours.
The town is situated in a V-shaped valley, which meant that a large amount of the flood water was coming at force from the hill tops.
The fire service were forced into action early, as the water affected the electrics in Lower Hey Kennels on 
Huddersfield Road, with crew members assisting to rescue the dogs.
One resident told how she had to pull her neighbour out of the gushing rain water.
Rohan Johnston, 22, from Micklehurst Road said: “It was stupidly strong and was sweeping people off their feet, I had to pick a neighbour up out of the water because she sort of got sucked under. That was really horrible because I knew her and she was terrified!”
Ms Johnston also used anything she could find to build walls around other neighbours’ houses to help stop their yards from further flooding.
She said: “I spent almost an hour building a wall outside of another neighbour’s house just to decrease the amount of water that was filling up her yard. The road is still filthy now, no-one’s even bothered to come and clean it up, so we are left with all sorts of rubbish: plant pots, bottles, fences.”
In a press statement, Tameside Council’s executive member responsible for operations and highways, Cllr Allison Gwynne, said: “We did everything possible to prepare for the adverse weather but we can’t stop a month’s worth of rain falling in just a few hours and unfortunately some areas were hit by localised flooding.”
Ellie Butterworth, 21, who works at the Rising Sun pub on Stockport Road said the floods delayed her journey to work by over half an hour.
She added: “It also took me a while to get home as most of the roads were closed, it was awful, the water was gone but it had left mud and rocks all over the place.
“It flooded half way in to the pub, I ended up spending half of my shift ankle deep in freezing cold muddy water trying to get it out! Although I was very cold, thankfully it was over in a few hours.”
Most roads were re-opened by morning, after the clean-up effort began.