Minehead Butlin's closes after flood damage in Somerset

A seaside holiday resort has been forced to shut after heavy rain caused flooding across parts of Somerset.

The Butlin's resort in Minehead will be closed for four days after the site was damaged during extreme weather conditions on Sunday.

Further yellow warnings for rain have been put in place by the Met Office for parts of the UK later this week.

Butlin's said they were "very sorry" to anyone whose holiday had been affected and full refunds would be made.

The Met Office said heavy rain is expected for parts of north-west England and Wales, on Tuesday and Wednesday.

A Butlin's spokesperson said: "We've taken the difficult decision to close due to several important venues being impacted by the weather."

Karen Keen, who was holidaying with her friends at the site, said "streams of water" started entering their chalet from both sides at around 10:30 BST on Sunday.

With the rest of her group at breakfast, Ms Keen said she started to get everything off the floor before texting them to come back to help.

"It was so quick. It was just crazy. Even the toilets were backing up," she said.

Helen Harris, one of the group of four, said: "We were a few chalets down, so when we got back ours was worse."

"It was a few inches deep at that point."

Ms Harris said they then got clothes and other belongings out of the water and started to pack up.

"It was like a very small stream of water in every single room of the chalet and the outside," she said.

"Everything was floating around. It was in the fridge," said Deanna Rogers, who was staying in a chalet with Ms Harris.

Ruth Mills, who had booked the trip for the group, said: "On Saturday, we had been to see Wet Wet Wet and it was just like okay - [then this was our] turn to get wet wet wet. It was horrendous. It just got worse."

The group said some of their belongings, mainly clothing, had been ruined."

Ms Harris said they started getting "cross" when time passed and they felt they were not being told what to do.

"We tried to make a laugh about it but nobody was there with any information, we were just left in limbo," she said.

"We were tired and wet, we felt dirty. They need to face people. Not everyone was angry, they just wanted to know what was going on."

But in a statement, Butlin's said more staff were called in to help guests after the chalets were flooded.

"We brought in extra team to help guests, who worked quickly to re-accommodate every unit that had been flooded and we had an overwhelmingly positive response on resort yesterday," the firm said.

"We communicated with guests via digital screens and SMS to keep them updated and managed to continue with a full entertainment schedule.

"Due to several important venues being impacted by the weather, we took the difficult decision to close for this week's family break. The safety of our guests and team is our top priority and we are very sorry to anyone whose holiday has been affected."

The resort is expected to re-open on Friday.

A number of businesses were flooded and many roads were closed in Minehead, while Avon and Somerset Police advised against non-essential travel.

A flood alert was earlier issued by the Environment Agency (EA) for Lower Tone and Parrett Moors in Somerset.

A spokesperson for the EA said residents should "be prepared" as flooding was now possible in these areas.

Keith Hunt, whose zero waste shop Our Precious Earth on the town's Holloway Street was flooded during "unprecedented rain", said he was unsure about what to do as he "couldn't get business insurance for flooding".

"The water's left a mark on the walls, will have affected stock, all the perishables on the floor, paper and cardboard boxes," he said.

"Obviously, all the flooring, is spoilt because of the amount of water that's in there."

"It's the loss of business as well. It's such a crucial time. The quicker I can get it cleared up the better," Mr Hunt continued.

"I'll have to borrow some money to get it all completed."

An amber weather warning for thunderstorms across parts of Devon and Somerset was in place on Sunday afternoon, with a yellow warning in other parts of south west England and South Wales.

There were widespread road closures, as well as bus and train cancellations.

Almost a month's rain fell on Sunday at the Birds Hill rain gauge on the edge of Exmoor.

"The weekend saw quite exceptional rainfall across parts of Devon and Somerset, in particular. Unfortunately, by Sunday afternoon this was exacerbated by a swathe of torrential rain from a very energetic storm cell moving northwards, resulting very quickly in flash flooding, disruption and damage.

"The situation deteriorated sufficiently to warrant an amber warning from the Met Office, covering a zone broadly up through the M5 corridor and environs either side of it, such as the Brendon Hills.

"On Sunday afternoon alone, some places saw 40mm of rain in just two hours with the rain falling at torrential rates of 60 to over 100mm per hour. Some places, such as Wellington, saw their highest amount of rain falling in a short period since 28 July 1969."

Other spots saw up to 60mm of rain fall, more than half the September average for the region of 92.45mm.

The band of rain moved eastwards throughout Sunday and cleared in the early hours of Monday.

Conditions are expected to remain "blustery at times" early this week.

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