Berkshire Floods 2007

The Withers family are still reeling from the devastating scene you see here.

The destroyed garage

Up until Friday this was the garage attached to their bungalow in Woolhampton. Now it looks like a building site.

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See photos of the damage here:

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Ann Withers witnessed the flood of Friday 20 July flatten part of her home in a matter of seconds. She narrowly escaped with her life.

I left the house with my grandson at around 12pm, and all I could see was water pouring over the neighbours fence which is more then 6ft high.

It looked like a waterfall.

I rushed into the house to call my husband. When I returned to the back door where the water was heading towards, my neighbour shouted for me to move my car, as the
brick work which was holding up our fence was about to collapse on top of it.

I waded through the water with my grandson and moved the car. Within a matter of seconds our neighbour's summer house crashed through the side of our garage.

The entire fencing and brick work collapsed, also in seconds.

I tried to get to the back door, but the current and the 3ft depth of the water refrained me from doing this.

I could only access the front of our house, and by then the ground floor of our house was filled with around 2 to 3ft of water.

This was the utility room

My son's car which was parked on the right side side of the double garage was now on the left.

Our utility room attached to our garage was completely ripped out, and our garage roof has completely bowed.

The ground floor of our house has the silt and residue left behind from the flood. It has ruined our property.

The force and mass of water was so rapid, I was unable to salvage any of our property on the ground floor.

It was absolutely terrifying, I've never seen anything like it.

The damage it has caused and how lucky I was to escape with my grandson unharmed is a miracle.

If I had moved my car or remained anywhere near our garage any later, I dread to think what could have happened.