Hundreds have to flee as North East flood waters rise

Sep 8 2008 by Dan Warburton, The Journal

A MASS clean-up operation was under way yesterday after torrential rain caused flooding misery and sparked huge rescue operations across the region.

More than 100mm of rain fell in only 48 hours on Friday and Saturday, with parts of Northumberland and Durham suffering the worst downpour in more than 60 years.

And yesterday the Environment Agency warned the region to brace itself for further downpours as more rain threatened to add to the thousands of pounds of damage already sustained.

At the height of the floods, the High Street in Morpeth, Northumberland, was 2ft underwater, forcing more than 400 people to be evacuated from their homes.

Homeowners spent the night at two rescue centres in the north and the south of the town, and returned to their homes yesterday to find their properties severely damaged.

Paul Hedley, of Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service, said: “It was a scene of utter devastation.

“The feedback I’ve had from my personnel who were working here was it was just something which they couldn’t actually comprehend when they saw the scale of the absolute devastation. And I have to say that it’s testament to the tremendous dedication and commitment of not just the fire and rescue service, but everybody who was connected to trying to mitigate the effects of this flood.”

Three Northumbria Police officers spent more than two hours trapped between landslides on Saturday.

The trio were stranded at around 9pm on the A697 Powburn Road, near Alnwick, Northumberland, as they tried to clear a 10ft high landslide that had blocked the road.

A second landslide cut off their escape route and they spent two hours at the site before being rescued just before midnight by Northumberland Search and Rescue team.

Meanwhile flash flooding wreaked havoc in Rothbury, Northumberland, as rising waters swept cars away and trapped passengers in their vehicles.

At around 7.30am police received a call from a man who was frantically trying to free himself from his vehicle.

It was parked on High Street, Rothbury, and as the water levels rose the driver was unable to get out of the car. The fire service attended and rescued the man, who was not hurt.

Only half-an-hour earlier, an empty blue Fiesta was swept down the river, and police were also called to reports that a silver Corsa had overturned and landed on its roof in a ditch at Colwell, Northumberland. The driver was freed from the vehicle by the fire service. He was uninjured but was taken to hospital as a precaution.

In Barnard Castle, County Durham, six of Britain’s top canoeists were criticised by the emergency services after sparking a huge rescue when they were swept a mile downstream by raging tides on the River Tees at Winston.

Meanwhile 60 wedding guests were evacuated from the Honest Lawyer hotel, on the A167 at Sunderland Bridge, just south of Durham, when two nearby rivers burst their banks.

And residents across the region faced running battles with rising water levels, with people living in Clara Vale, Gateshead, using wheelie bins to stop homes from flooding.

A yacht was also escorted to safety up the Tyne after it was stranded seven miles off the North East coast.

More on way

ATTEMPTS to restore normality after the devastating weekend floods were dealt a blow last night as forecasters warned the region to brace itself for further rainfall.

It is thought much of the North East is likely to remain dry today, but another 20mm of rain is expected tomorrow.

And with river levels swelling and the ground saturated, there are fears of further flooding.

Neil Armstrong, a forecaster for the Met Office, last night said: "There have been huge amounts of rain falling over the last 48 hours, but that is likely to stop today.

"Most of the region should be dry by this morning, but further rain is expected on Tuesday.

"We’ve issued a severe weather warning for the western parts of the UK and areas like the North East, which have already had severe flooding, will see more rain.

"These will not be on the same scale as what we have seen in the last 48 hours, but with the ground already saturated and the river levels already high, this could be problematic."

Phil Welton, project manager at the Environment Agency, said further rainfall was unlikely to lead to flooding and praised the rescue operation.

He said: "We are not expecting the same situation as over the weekend, or nearly as bad.

"We issued the flood warning in plenty of time for Morpeth and that served us well.

"There has not been a major flooding in this area since 1963, but the response was really, really good, and everyone was helping out and joining in."