Saturday’s storms caused traffic standstills throughout south-west Hertfordshire. Queues of cars waited as vehicles negotiated flooded roads and many had to be pushed out of deep pools.
Firemen were kept busy answering calls to pump clear road surfaces and empty cellars of flood water. Drain covers were forced up in many places and road subsidences were numerous.
A plague of rats at the Harebreaks junction with St Albans Road was reported by one resident after drain covers were displaced.
At Church Lane, Mill End, Rickmansworth, the road subsidence was so bad that traffic had to be diverted by police until emergency repairs could be carried out.
At Boreham Wood, shops were flooded and other flooding was reported at Watford in The Avenue, Leavesden Road, Rickmansworth Road and Hempstead Road.
When Mr and Mrs Gordon Pender returned to their Purbrock Avenue, Watford, home after the storm they found lightning had hit their television aerial. Both their television and wireless were damaged, but fortunately there was no fire.
[From the Watford Observer of July 20, 1962]
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