Page ^ Daily Mail, Thursday, August 1, 2019
The deluge!
Can it REALLY be less than a week since
Britain sweltered on its hottest ever day?
Keys pub, said: ‘It’s absolutely
devastating. It’s the worst I have
known. As well as the floods, there
were people out putting sheets on
their cars to prevent damage from
the hail.’
Rowena Hutchinson, who runs
the Red Lion Inn in Langthwaite,
said she feared she would drown
as five feet of water poured into
the pub ‘like a waterfall’.
Describing the torrential rain,
she said: ‘It’s completely smashed
doors off, and a wall has gone. The
speed and force of the water was
unbelievable, it’s just tossed the
doors all over the place.’
Olly Rycroft, a gamekeeper for
the Bolton Estate in Wensleydale,
drove through flooded roads and
fields in his Land Rover to reach
his elderly parents in Bellerby. He
said: ‘The water was up to my waist
in their front room. It’s destroyed
their brick shed and has picked up
two cars parked outside and
crashed them in to each other.’
Locals were determined to get
back to normal yesterday, with
farmers helping clear mud from
roads, and householders and busi-
ness owners trying to dry out
premises. Andrew Orkney, an opti-
cian in Leyburn, said: ‘We’ve prob-
ably shipped out 100 gallons of
water. We’re hoping to be fully func-
tional by tomorrow. We have a
dehumidifier and the only issue
might be the carpet is a bit whiffy.’
Soldiers from the Second Bat-
talion, the Yorkshire Regiment
were sent out from Catterick Gar-
rison to help people in Swaledale,
handing out sandbags to try to
save their homes.
But North Yorkshire Police faceda backlash over a light-hearted
message posted by its control
room staff on Tuesday afternoon
as rain and thunder hit.
The message, which ended with
a laughter emoji, read: ‘999 call
received from a concerned mem-
ber of the public. They believed
Armageddon was taking place.
Reassurance given it was just
a thunderstorm.’
Joe Willis, 41, a Leyburn busi-nessman who had to barricade his
home from floodwater, said: ‘It
isn’t a laughing matter.’
Floodwater caused landslips
which blocked railways including
the Settle to Carlisle line in the
Yorkshire Dales, and routes
between Crewe, Chester and Man-
chester yesterday morning.
Several A roads and more rail
lines were left underwater in Man-
chester. The Met Office said moreheavy showers are expected in
north and west England and Wales
over the coming days and through
the weekend.
Last night 16 alerts of expected
flooding and 25 of possible
flooding remained in force
covering rivers in parts of
Derbyshire, Manchester, Leices-
tershire, Merseyside, Nottingham-
shire, Staffordshire, and in West
and North Yorkshire.Flash floods: Drivers had to abandon their cars in Swaledale as roads quickly turned into torrents in monsoon-like rainsRescue effort: Residents bail out homes in Swaledale, as the Yorkshire Regiment arrive with sandbags in the village of GrintonBRIDGES were washed away and
roads became raging torrents as
severe downpours swept across
the north.
Less than a week after a record-break-
ing heatwave, hailstones likened by
locals to ‘pickled onions’ fell during the
monsoon-like conditions in the
Yorkshire Dales.
Soldiers from a nearby garrison were sent
out with sandbags as the worst flash floods
in a generation devastated landmarks and
left at least 100 homes underwater.
Homes and businesses were flooded in the
villages of Fremington, Grinton and Reeth,
North Yorkshire, while in nearby Leyburn
even the fire station was inundated.
Bridges destroyed include one on Grinton
Moor used in the 2014 Tour de France and
due to be on the route of next month’s
cycling world road race championships,
while part of the main road between Reeth
and Richmond collapsed.
Emergency services dealt with 115 flood-
related calls in Swaledale as a month’s rain
fell in four hours on Tuesday evening.
Andrew Atkin, landlord of the Bridge Inn
at Grinton, looked after around 20 people
stranded in the floodwater on Tuesday
night – despite his own cellar being under
four feet. He said: ‘People camped out in
the bar. I’ve been here 16 years and there’s
never been a flood. I’m told it’s the worst
since Hurricane Charley in 1986.’
Among those staying in the pub were Mr
By Richard Marsden
Going, going, gone: Bridge at Grinton Moor is part-destroyed by floods before collapsing... it was used in the Tour de France, inset
‘Force of the water
was unbelievable’Atkin’s own parents Christopher and Eliza-
beth, who had to leave their home after
walls and outbuildings collapsed. Mrs
Atkin, 69, said: ‘It was so powerful, so scary.
It was like a big river, not a little beck.’
In Bellerby, pub landlord John Begley had
to hand his four-year-old granddaughter
Athena to firemen to carry her over the
floodwater to her parents on Tuesday.
Mr Begley, 73, who runs the flooded Cross
2014
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