By Nick Parry BBC News Online

Tree trunks and rocks were washed into the street

The first the 60-year-old knew about the devastation about to hit his home in Ynys Meudy near Pontardawe, was when his daughter-in-law Jennifer, came into wake him on Wednesday morning to tell him that water was seeping through the doors.

Within minutes, they were stranded upstairs looking down on 6ft-high flood water which pushed out double-glazed windows and whipped pictures from the walls.

As he looked out of his bedroom window, she could see tree trunks floating around like twigs and watched on helplessly as his car was swept away into his neighbour's garden.

"I was in bed. I'd just come off the nightshift," Mr Davies told BBC News Online.

"The water was trickling through the door. Next thing there was a bang and the floodgates literally opened.

Leonard Davies says he has lost everything in the flood

"It was six feet high right the way through the house - everything has gone - everything.

"Even the pictures have been washed off the walls, the tins of food have been washed out of the cupboards. The microwave was on fire because the electric was still on and the gas fire's been washed away from the wall."

Around five neighbouring properties fell victim to the flash flooding - no one is reported to have been seriously hurt although one resident was taken to hospital suffering from shock.

Firefighters were cleaning up after the flood

As firefighters continued to pump out the water and direct a digger picking up tree trunks and boulders from the street, social services arrived to talk to Mr Davies.

The only footwear left in his house was the pair of slippers he stood in. Social workers from Neath Port Talbot Council were trying to arrange for some clothing and arrange emergency accommodation for him.

Surveying the damage of his house, he added: "Something's gone seriously wrong. I've lived here all my life and the last flood was 55 years ago and it wasn't as bad as this.