TWO rest centres were opened up last night to cater for residents who had to leave their homes because of the threat of the ever-rising waters of the River Ouse and River Foss.

At York College's further and higher education site off Tadcaster Road the canteen was opened up and council staff along with volunteers from the Red Cross were on standby to help.

Meanwhile they laid out camp beds, blankets and pillows in Ashfield House at the college. Susan Gibbons, of Lincoln Street, Leeman Road, came in with her father, Joseph Holdsworth.

She said: "I would have stayed and coped on the first floor, but my father couldn't manage on his own."

Within an hour of arriving the pair had been sorted out with overnight accommodation in a Fulford pub.

They said they had lived in the Leeman Road area all their lives.

Susan said: "I remember in 1981 it was up to the window sills before they built the flood defences and when we were children we had it every winter. It was one of those things. You just lived on the first floor and waded through it downstairs."

Jim Crook, City of York's director of community services, arrived at the centre during a busy night touring the worst-hit areas of the city.

He said householders at Naburn and in Leeman Road and along Bootham seemed to prefer to stay in their homes or to find alternative accommodation for themselves.

"We wanted to establish a centre here and at Archbishop Holgate's so they are here as a precaution. It's just something we're making available to people if they want it.

"It has been marvellous, the way people have worked together."

He said younger people would be invited to stay on the camp beds but older people would be found temporary accommodation.

York's MP Hugh Bayley, who had spent part of the afternoon with Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott on his visit to the region, also dropped in as part of a morale-boosting tour.

He said: "Everyone in York is working hard to help people who have nowhere to stay."

Mr Bayley, who said the river water was only a few inches below his own property in Fulford, said he had raised the issue of flood defences on his visit to the Environment Agency offices in the afternoon and believed there should be a full analysis of York's flood defences following the flood crisis.