North Circular flooding causing commuters' "nightmare" (From Times Series)

North Circular flooding causing commuters' "nightmare"

11:07am Wednesday 5th September 2012 in News By Natalie O'Neill

Commuters are having a “nightmare” as the North Circular lies under several feet of water this morning.

Traffic is queuing in both directions due to a burst water main under the Brent Cross Flyover.

Les bortnowski said: “I was going from Finchley by car to Brent Cross and I saw all this water on the road. I was so shocked.

“It's like something out of an apocalyptic movie - it's scary. I feel sorry for all the people stuck in traffic trying to get to where they're going.
“It’s a nightmare”

Susie Weisz is a midwife at Royal Free hospital. She said: “I’m doing post natal checks in the area but it's taking ages to get around.

“I don't know how I'll get to everyone but hopefully I'll make it.”

The Metropolitan Police has ten units at the scene and officers have reported seeing a 15ft diameter hole in two lanes caused by the flooding.

Maureen Rose said: “It’s taken me an hour and a half to get from Wembley to Brent Cross station by car. The flood it's huge. It's unbelievable. I could believe the amount of water. It's causing absolute chaos.”

A spokeman for Thames Water said: "Our engineers are currently on the scene working to turn off the water running through the broken section of pipe before they dig it up and replace it.

"Water escaping from the broken main is flooding three west-bound lanes of the carriageway.

"We are really sorry for the disruption. We are working as hard as we can to get things back to normal."