Floods force entire village to flee
Hundreds abandon homes as River Don hits record level after month’s rain in a day
HUNDREDS of families were told to abandon their homes last night after officials warned that devastating floods posed an immediate risk to lives.
Seven severe flood warnings were issued in Yorkshire along g the River Don by the Environment Agency, meaning a threat to life to residents.
Among those evacuated were 700 people in the village of Fishlake near Doncaster, where helpless villagers grabbed a few belongings and their pets as they made their escape with water levels several feet high.
Swathes of the country remained under water. A month’s rainfall drenched Yorkshire and the East Midlands on Thursday and Friday.
The Don, which also flows through Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster, hit its highest recorded level of just over 21ft on Friday. An Environment Agency spokesman said more than 1,600 people had been evacuated from 1,200 houses across Yorkshire. While river levels had peaked in most places, they remained high and will recede only slowly, officials said.
Despite clear skies yesterday, residents in Fishlake braced themselves for further floods as the river rose due to water tumbling down from the hills.
Last night, only tractors could get in and out of the village, with former Labour leader Ed Miliband, the local MP, hitching a ride on a trailer to visit a handful of residents who refused to leave.
At the Hare And Hounds pub – still just above the floodwaters – landlords Angela and Scott Godfrey had run out of food, but a nearby curry house was providing hot meals for locals who chose to stay.
On the way out of the village, as darkness fell, a shout went up from a man marooned on the roof of his car. A team of firefighters set off with an inflatable boat and torchlights to rescue the motorist, while another team went into a home in waist-high water to bring a guinea pig in its cage to safety.
Jodie Waite, who lives on the outskirts of Fishlake, said she feared for her 35 Shetland ponies which are stranded in a field.
She said: ‘Most of the homes and businesses in the centre of the village are under three or four feet of water. We’ve been lucky here so far but nearby properties have been flooded.’
Fishlake Mill B&B owner Graham Atha was last night preparing to move his family and belongings to the top of the mill as the water closed in.
He said: ‘ The rain may have stopped but it doesn’t feel like it’s getting any better.’ Some residents were critical of the lack of information from the authorities.
Louise McCormack, who runs the Old Butchers restaurant in Fishlake, said she was trapped in her house with her 84-year-old mother and several neighbours who had been made homeless.
She said: ‘The water is getting closer and closer and we don’t know what to do. There is an absolute state of confusion right now.
‘ No one has told us anything. We’re rallying because there’s a very strong community spirit but we’ve been given no information or support by the council.
‘We have just about enough food and water to tide us over for
‘There is an absolute state of confusion’
another day or so but we really need help. Homes and businesses have been devastated and now we feel as if we’ve been abandoned.’
Linda Bushell, 52, fled her house at 11pm on Friday and stayed in the Hare And Hounds.
She too was angry at the lack of communication from the authorities, adding: ‘I got a text from the
Environment Agency saying I was at risk of flooding after my house had already flooded.’
Housing Minister Robert Jenrick said the Government had triggered its emergency scheme to fund the cost of tackling floods in Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. Councils which have to pay for temporary accommodation and staff overtime can claim it back from the Government.
Authorities in Sheffield admitted that a new multi- million- pound defence system, which was completed in 2017 to withstand a ‘once in a century’ flood, would now need upgrading. During a visit to Leeds yesterday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the UK needed much better flood management and prevention schemes.
Boris Johnson, who visited Derbyshire on Friday evening, said the Government had allocated £2.6 billion for a huge programme of flood defences.
Meanwhile, snow hit parts of North Wales yesterday. A dry day is forecast today.