CATASTROPHES: MEMORIES OF DISASTER STILL RAW FOR YORKSHIRE PEOPLE ANXIOUSLY WATCHING RAIN Years of devastation that mean region will not be sleeping easy
FOR MANY in Yorkshire, memories of the devastation caused by flooding have been all too recent, with many homeowners and businesses affected by catastrophic downpours more than once.
Some will find it difficult to have a good night’s sleep, amid warnings of severe flooding this week.
Exceptional rainfall in June 2007 led to widespread flood damage in the UK.
Hull was particularly badly affected, with 8,600 houses and 1,300 businesses flooded, and nearly all of the city’s 98 schools damaged.
Tragically Michael Barnett, 28, became trapped in a storm
drain in Hessle and died from hypothermia during the terrible weather.
While in Sheffield, the River Don overtopped, causing widespread flooding in the Don Valley area.
A 14-year-old boy was swept away by the swollen River Sheaf and a 68-year-old man died after attempting to cross a flooded road in Sheffield city centre.
The storms also saw the Meadowhall shopping centre engulfed with water from the nearby River Don.
The speed of the torrent led to people being trapped inside the centre, with staff talking of a camaderie as a month’s worth of rain fell on the region within just a few hours.
Parts of Barnsley were also badly affected, with the River Dearne breaching its banks causing misery for residents and businesses.
Two years later many people in areas of Sheffield affected by the floods in 2007 again faced evacuation following torrential rainfall in June.
There was further flooding in 2018 and 2019, when almost 1,000 homes and 564 businesses were affected by flooding, including in Fishlake and Bentley near Doncaster.
The village of Mytholmroyd in West Yorkshire has also had more than its fair share of disaster, hit by flash flooding in 2012, when more than 5,000 properties were damaged in the Upper Calder Valley.
The area was severely affected by the devastating Boxing Day floods in 2015, and most recently in February 2020 when Storm Ciara saw a month-and-a-half ’s worth of rain falling on the village in 24 hours.
The nearby town of Hebden Bridge was also affected, with flood sirens installed to install residents and business people of the dangers to their properties in the event of heavy rainfall.
Parts of Leeds were also hit by the storms in 2015, with businesses and people living in the Kirkstall Road part of the city particularly affected.
About 100 homes in Snaith and East Cowick in East Yorkshire were also inundated after the River Aire spilled out of its normal washlands the same month.
Pictures of a bungalow, the home of Kevin and Catherine Lorryman, from Snaith, with just the roof visible above 9ft of muddy floodwater, were shown round the world.
Any significant rainfall will be a test of multi-million flood alleviation schemes which were built around Hull, the city which is the second most likely to flood in the country outside London, following the devastation of 2007.
But the city council was taking no chances this week, and has warned residents to take steps including signing up for flood warnings and preparing an emergency flood kit of essential items.
Leader of Bradford Council Susan Hinchliffe also warned people to be prepared.
Only last July Sheffield city region mayor and Barnsley MP Dan Jarvis warned that the Government’s trustworthiness was “on the line” with recent flood defence funding “inadequate” to prevent another disaster in South Yorkshire.
The Government increased funding for flood prevention in the 2020 budget – but Mayor Jarvis said it was “completely inadequate given the scale of the threat”, targeting areas affected by the 2007 floods, and not those devastated in the flooding in 2019.
In North Yorkshire heavy rainfall led to problems in the Settle and Skipton areas last year, with the River Wharfe and River Ure swelling.
While in Tadcaster, floodwaters prompted the partial closure of the town’s main road bridge in 2017, effectively splitting the town in two.