Day the roads became rivers
A month’s rain in 24 hours hits the North and Midlands – and leaves woman dead
A WOMAN died yesterday after being swept away in floods that have devastated swathes of the country.
Her body was found in the River Derwent at 10.40am, having been carried two miles from Rowsley, Derbyshire, where she went missing in the early hours.
With one month’s rainfall in 24 hours, there was also misery after the River Don rose to twice its normal height, leaving streets in Bentley, Doncaster, under water for the second time in 12 years.
Dozens of families watched as the river burst and water washed down the street, up to their doors and in many cases into homes.
The nightmare was made worse by the local council’s failure to deliver sandbags until early morning, when the flood was already lapping at doors and it was impossible to stop the filthy tide.
People grabbed wheelie bins to fill with sandbags and race to pile them in doorways.
The same streets were flooded in June 2007, but no flood defences have been installed since then.
An ambulance station in Yarborough Terrace was under water by first light, forcing paramedics to move to another base.
Local resident Carole Officer, 77, who was rescued from her house cold and in shock and taken to dry land by dinghy, said: ‘They said it would never happen again.’
Bentley is protected by a pumping station but an £ 11million scheme to improve it will not be completed until spring. Bentley residents seemed resigned to their fate. Wearing flip-flops, security officer Steve Sanchez, 57, set off for a holiday in the Canary Islands – leaving his house to flood.
He’d put furniture up on bricks and moved valuables upstairs, and will return in a week to assess the damage. He added: ‘The water’s going to come in. I just hope it has receded by the time we get back.’
Jason Richards, 44, returned from a trip to find water at the door of his house in Yarborough Terrace. He said sandbags arrived ‘way too late’, when his front garden was more than 1ft under water.
He is another flood veteran. In 2007 his house suffered £90,000 of damage to the ground floor and he had to live upstairs for 12 months while it dried out and was repaired. He added: ‘There have been close calls since, but nothing like this.’
Retired bus driver Diane Pinder, 72, was rescued by boat. She said 40 houses on her street were flooded, adding: ‘ It’s an awful experience to go through again.’
Last night, the Environment Agency had issued six severe flood warnings – which signify a danger to life – and 62 flood warnings.
Boris Johnson turned up to help clean up at Matlock in Derbyshire yesterday, and said the UK needed to invest in more flood defences.
The Prime Minister said: ‘At the moment, this is not looking like something we need to escalate to a national emergency, but we certainly stand by ready to help small businesses in any way we can.’
Elsewhere, the Don flooded firms in Rotherham, homes in nearby Whiston and blocked a rail line in the area.
In Worksop, Nottinghamshire, town centre firms were flooded by the River Ryton and 25 homes were evacuated as a precaution.
At the Chatsworth Estate in Derbyshire, the Derwent reached 18ft – three times its normal height.
Rain also caused a landslip that forced 35 homes to be evacuated in Mansfield.
The highest rainfall occurred at Swineshaw, in the Peak District, at 4.4in (112mm) in 24 hours. Sheffield had 3.4in (85mm) and there was 2.5in (65mm) at Gringley on the Hill, Nottinghamshire. The average total rainfall for November in the region is 3.5in (89mm).
‘They said it would never happen again’