‘Like groundhog day’: Flood-hit Yorkshire towns and villages prepare once more for devastating deluge

Residents load up on sandbags and move valuables upstairs as Storm Christoph barrels down

A man in flood water near Naburn Lock Caravan Park in York as Storm Christoph is set to bring widespread flooding, gales and snow to parts of the UK (PA)

The sandbags have been put in place; the furniture moved upstairs; the insurance policies checked and double-checked.

Now thousands of people across Yorkshire are playing a waiting game.

As Storm Christoph barrels across the UK, residents in places like Fishlake near Doncaster, the Calder Valley, near Halifax, and areas of York, have spent Tuesday preparing – yet again – for the possibility of major flooding.

“I feel like it’s groundhog day, like I’m back where I was in November 2019,” said Pam Webb, a spa owner in the South Yorkshire village of Fishlake which was submerged for the first time in its history when the River Don burst its banks back then. “We’ve had a delivery of sandbags and we’re putting our furniture upstairs. But there’s only so much you can do. You feel helpless. You’re just watching the weather, anxious and hoping it doesn’t do its worst.”

So far, things are not as desperate as they might have been.

The expected deluge forecast from midnight has, for now, not been quite as constant as was feared. The rain has been heavy but on-and-off. If it stays that way, the rivers may stay within their banks. Flood defences – where they have been built, and that does not include Fishlake – may hold.

Yet, all the same, on Tuesday morning, a major incident was declared in South Yorkshire after the Environment Agency issued 16 flood warnings across the county, as well as in Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Merseyside, Staffordshire and Northamptonshire.

The agency said the combination of heavy rain and melting snow created a "volatile situation". The Met Office added there may be a “danger to life” in some areas where rivers topped their banks.

In a tweet, Ros Jones, the mayor of Doncaster, tried to articulate the gravity of the situation. “I do not want people to panic,” she wrote. “But flooding is possible so please be prepared.”

She added: “Preparations are being put in place … and will run alongside our Covid response. Council officers will continue to monitor around the clock.”

Similar action has been undertaken in the Calder Valley, an area of west Yorkshire that has been hit by six floods in the past half-decade – including in February last year when 1,200 homes were submerged.

“People here know what it’s like to see their homes go under so there’s real anxiety, real worry, about what the next 48 hours hold,” said Scott Patient, cabinet member for climate change with Calderdale Council and himself a resident of the valley village of Mytholmroyd. “There’s a lot of people going to the builders’ merchants for sandbags, getting their valuables upstairs, stocking up on candles and fresh water – because they know from experience what it’s like to be sat in the dark with no drinking water or electricity. I know that from experience."

Longer term, he added, many residents and businesses in the area had already converted properties to be more flood proof. One cafe’s entire downstairs is now wash-clean so after each flood, it only needs to be hosed and disinfected before reopening again. Several homeowners have had flood gates installed around their houses.

These individual actions have been complemented by a government flood defence scheme worth £74m and the installation of flood sirens. The council stresses it is active at cleaning gullies through the year.

“But there needs to be a more holistic approach or this will only keep happening,” says Patient. “The defences we have offer some protection and civil engineering schemes like that are great – but they are now only part of the solution. We need to look at the whole River Calder catchment and come up with more natural solutions. We need Sphagnum moss on the moors above us, soaking up water and releasing it more slowly; and hedge rows reinstating. But these schemes – and locally, there is a will and talent to do them – need government support and money.”

Earlier in the day, two MPs, Halifax’s Holly Lynch, and York Central’s Rachael Maskell, had made a similar call for government help – albeit more immediate government help – for the whole region.

In a letter to ministers, they demanded a meeting of Cobra be convened which, they said, would unlock extra measures and money to keep their constituencies safe “before and not after” a deluge.

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs responded by saying: “Since 2015 the government has invested £496m in flood defences in Yorkshire – more than any other region – better protecting more than 66,000 properties.”

Back in Fishlake, such words are a cold comfort to Pam Webb.

“Credit where it’s due,” she said, “there has been more support here this time – we’ve had sandbags delivered for a starters – but this can’t keep happening every year. We can’t keep having people’s lives ruined every winter.”