We received a call for help from the Environment Agency asking if some of our engineers could join their staff in Selby, guiding the army in placing sandbags along the banks of the Ouse. A number of my staff agreed and I went along to do my bit as well.

We joined Gold Command in Selby and worked for a several nights checking the sandbags that had already been placed there and in Barlby. Squads of soldiers were sent out to add to the defences under our supervision. Unfortunately, the river had already overtopped the banks before we arrived and the extra sandbags only prevented the flooding getting worse.

I vividly recall the noise of the river in the quiet of the night, as water roared over the banks onto the fields north west of Selby.

One problem was that it was impossible to know where the incoming tide and flooded river would meet and cause the highest water level. I remember one crucial night, anxiously watching the river rise higher and higher in the town as the tide pushed inland against the flow of the flood water - but it didn’t breach our defences.

As the waters rose in York I also joined hundreds of other York residents on the bridges and behind the brick flood walls, watching the river creep higher. On the night when it was at its highest level, I put my hand over the wall and measured the distance from the water to the top of the bricks – it was just 6 inches.

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Council staff and the army had raised the walls with sandbags in case they were overtopped, but they proved to be just about sufficient.