All hands to the pumps

Emergency planners were increasingly concerned about the impact of the River Derwent on the two towns, was well as Stamford Bridge and Elvington during the day.

But there was some relief for York as predictions that the city's flood defences would be breached by the River Ouse were downgraded.

Soldiers helped City of York Council staff to distribute sandbags to the Leeman Road area, one of the parts of York plan-ners thought would be worst hit if floodwaters did reach their highest levels for 400 years.

In the event the River Nidd, which flows into the Ouse, stopped rising during the evening.

But even so there was rush hour chaos, with main roads including the A19 at Fulford closed by flood water, and 37 residents had to be rescued in the city centre by police and firefighters using dinghies.

At an emergency flood strategy meeting Malton, and shortly after it, Norton were placed on a severe flood alert - Ryedale District Council's chief executive, Harold Mosley, said particular attention was be-ing given to Old Malton because of the amount of water there.

An emergency co-ordination room has been set up at Ryedale House, which will be manned by police, fire and council staff. It will be open 24-hours-a-day, and backed by an information line which peo-ple can access by ringing the council's normal number.

Peter Holmes, Environment Agency flood defence manager, said water levels "were comparable" with those of last year's Great Floods.

Assistant Divisional Officer Tony Dyer of North Yorkshire fire and rescue service said the last 24 hours had "probably been the busiest we have ever had". The pres-sure was increased by problems across the county, rather than just in the Ry-edale area.

Inspector Neil Burnett of Malton Police said the situation was going to get worse before it gets better.

At Stamford Bridge Humberside Police closed the A166 to traffic because of spray problems. Inspector Steve Page said traf-fic would be diverted via the A1079 during today's busy periods.

He added the River Derwent was ex-pected to rise above nine metres during the next few days and boats were being prepared that could be brought into the area.

In York small boats were used to evacu-ate 37 people from the City Mills elderly people's complex and the Emperor's Wharf development in Skeldergate - to the delight of 86-year-old City Mills resi-dent Florence Burdett as she was lifted from the boat to be taken safely to dry land.

Sub officer Owen Hayward of North Yorkshire fire and rescue service said the evacuations of the water-surrounded buildings took place because they had no power or heating.

A problem with mains power left the pumps at the Foss flood barrier working at only half capacity yesterday afternoon, which threatened severe flooding in Huntington Road, Walmgate and Foss-gate.

An engineer managed to fix the problem and that threat receded - but then emer-gency chiefs faced the nightmare prospect of water levels on the Ouse getting above the 5.5-metre level of the city's flood de-fences, which would have severely affected at least 700 homes.

A city council spokeswoman said that could have meant the worst floods seen in York since the 1600s, but an Environ-ment Agency spokeswoman said later they were no longer expecting the de-fences to be breached.

But the council's emergency planning co-ordinator John Simmons said the new anticipated peak of five metres above normal still posed problems. They had to ensure their flood defences continued working, the A19 at Fulford would re-main closed for most of today, and there were also problems on Clifford Street and Huntington Road.

He added Naburn, where there was a se-vere flood warning, Acaster Malbis and Poppleton had been cut off.

There was also disruption in Tadcaster, where the River Wharfe burst its banks in the town centre and firefighters turned out to help people deal with electrical connections and other flood-related problems.

*For help and advice in Ryedale or to re-quest sandbags ring 01653-600666.