Residents remain on flood alert

8:50am Tuesday 19th August 2008

By Press reporter »
 

RESIDENTS living near the River Ouse in York were remaining on flood alert today as forecasters warned more August rain is on the way.

A flood warning remained in place along the stretch of the river through the city yesterday, covering footpaths along its edge as it rose as high as 3.14m – 10ft 4in – during the afternoon.

Rain collected in rivers and streams on higher ground in North Yorkshire during the weekend’s heavy downpours caused the Ouse to swell, and although levels had stopped rising by yesterday evening, the Environment Agency was today continuing to keep a close watch on the situation.

However, there were no reports of houses being flooded in York, with traditionally badly-hit areas such as Naburn and Rawcliffe escaping unscathed.

Yorkshire Water – which came in for heavy criticism from residents in the Shipton Road area of the city after they claimed the company failed to respond when overflowing water and raw sewage threatened to invade their homes on Sunday – is now looking into the situation there.

Carol Hill, who has been unable to return to her Shipton Road home since it was flooded last year, said: “We didn’t have any more problems yesterday, but we’re worried what happened at the weekend could happen again when more rain arrives and that we will be left in the cold again.

“This is an ongoing problem which has not been rectified and we wonder how many more times we will have to cope with it.”

Yorkshire Water said the volume of calls it received over the weekend meant it had to prioritise incidents where homes had been flooded, but was planning to clean the Shipton Road sewer system yesterday.

The River Ouse at Naburn Lock remained on a Flood Warning last night, while the river and tributaries from Aldwark downstream to the lock were put on a Flood Watch, as was the River Wharfe downstream of Tadcaster and the East Coast from Whitby down to Filey.

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