Workers react to flooding at Woolsbridge Industrial Estate in Dorset

Buildings were damaged and several vehicles abandoned at Woolsbridge Industrial Estate in Three Legged Cross after heavy rain caused flooding on the morning of Monday, January 16.

Water levels rose continuously from the early hours of the morning, trapping some people in their vehicles as they attempted to get to work, and others in their buildings.

A fire crew from Verwood and a technical rescue team from Poole attended shortly after 7.30am and rescued three people, two from their vehicles and one from a tree.

One man told the Echo how he attempted to drive through a patch of flooding not realising its depth. He said his vehicle “went away” from his control before the engine died and he ended up being taken deep into flood water.

He decided to abandon his car and walked through knee deep water to a place of safety.

According to incident commander David Hockaday, water levels kept rising when they were on scene and spread to nearby buildings – trapping people inside.

“Since we’ve been here, this water has raised probably half a metre in its deepest location,” he said.

Flooding at Woolsbridge Industrial Estate (Image: Newsquest)

“Then another building became involved so once we carried out the immediate rescues, we evacuated 23 people from the building and we’re currently awaiting local authority liaison to see if we need to carry out any further evacuations and try to assess just how high this water is going to get.

“The public safety message here is don’t enter water that you don’t know the depth of, and they didn’t know the depth of it.”

Among the most affected businesses was Technical Tubes Ltd, whose employees could be seen being taken away by a rescue boat.

People evacuated from building at Woolsbridge Industrial Park due to flooding (Image: Newsquest)

Trevor Francis, who works at Benham Precision Engineering, told the Echo: “I came in at about quarter to seven this morning and managed to get in because our bit was dry at that point.

“It was dark but there was a car in the distance with hazard lights on reversing back and as I looked along I could see the water, it was quite a way down but I didn’t realise it would spread this far. I thought it was a burst water main at first.

“Some lads I spoke to have been here for 15 years and they have never seen it like this.”

This was echoed by a worker from the nearby DLH Cars and Commercials, who said: “This is the worst I’ve ever seen it. It floods here quite a lot, but never this bad.”