Postman handed daughters through window to escape flood during Storm Dennis

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A desperate dad was forced to pass his children out the window when his home was flooded during Storm Dennis.

Ryan Thomas, 35, and his partner Zoe Loveridge, 29, were awoken by neighbours banging on the door of their house in Trehafod near Pontypridd, in Wales, at around 4am on Sunday.

Mr Thomas had to pass his two daughters, aged six and three, to their grandparents through a downstairs window as the water had reached their knees. ‘My mate woke us up banging on the windows saying “get out”,’ he said.

Mr Thomas added: ‘The weather was terrible and you had to think on your feet. ‘The water had come up to the top of the windowsill. ‘We had two hours of hell, basically.’

Mr Thomas described how their home had been ‘wiped out’ by the flooding, with all furniture gone.

He said he felt abandoned by authorities. Mr Thomas said: ‘Nobody helped us at all. We came together as a community and everybody helped each other. ‘No assistance, nothing at all.’

In nearby Nantgarw, Richard Addicott, 55, had to swim through the downstairs of his home to rescue his dog, Mabel.

He was awoken in the early hours of Sunday morning by partner Caroline Jones, 56, who told him they had flooded. Mr Addicott looked at the stairs – to where rescued bulldog Mabel sleeps in the bathroom – and was horrified to see water up to the third stair.

He made his way through waist-deep water in the lounge and kitchen before breaking the bathroom door open at the back of the house. Mabel, who weighs 29kg, was underwater when Mr Addicott managed to grab her and pull her to safety. ‘I thought she had drowned,’ he said. ‘I dragged her upstairs.

We later got rescued on the boat.’ On Monday, Mr Addicott spoke to First Minister Mark Drakeford after spotting him in the street outside.

In total four people have been killed in Storm Dennis and another person is missing, presumed dead.