Heartbreak for salon owner flooded out as she tries to get ready to re-open after months locked down

The owner of a hairdressers in Swansea has spoken of her frustration after torrential rail turned the centre of a town into a lake and flooded her business.

Heavy rain began falling in Swansea at around 1.20pm and quickly overwhelmed drains in a number of areas.

Firefighters attended incidents across Swansea, but the flooding was particularly bad in Killay in the west of Swansea, where homes and properties were flooded.

Sarah Leonard runs iSalon which is at the bottom of Gower Road at the roundabout junction with Goetre Fawr Road.

The area outside her business vanished beneath a lake of flood water, which then started entering her business.

"It's the worst it's been for 25 years," said Sarah.

"It's hard enough as it is at the moment for hairdressers and I was getting the shop renovated ready to reopen."

Flooding around iSalon in Killay (John Cooper/Media Wales)

A makeshift barrier was placed in front of the entrance but it could not hold back the water (Media Wales)

Hair salons have been closed since the UK went into lockdown and there is no confirmed date for when they might re-open in Wales.

Now Sarah faces having to deal with flooding at a time when the business has already been hard hit by not being able to operate.

She was particularly annoyed with motorists who continued to drive through the flood water, sending waves of it into her business.

Inside the salon (Media Wales)

Surveying the damage (Media Wales)

At one point it was around two feet deep inside her premises.

Her father, who is a carpenter, owns the property above and was there renovating it into a flat. He built a makeshift barrier across the salon entrance, but the water still managed to get in.

She said her staff were all on furlough and had been calling to see if they could help clean up after the flooding, but she said she had tackled it on her own, brushing the water out of the shop

"We think it's the culvert. I've got an old photo of the shop from the 1930s that shows it flooding then so nothing much has changed."

A wall has collapsed onto a car in a private driveway in Tycoch (Media Wales)

Elsewhere in Killay and other parts of Swansea roads have been ripped up by the power of the floodwaters and a car was partially buried beneath a wall which had collapsed on top of it.

And there was also flooding last night in Treorchy in east Wales, where people were still clearing up after the Storm Dennis floods in February.