Tuesday, December 16, 2008, 06:30
Eighteen months after the devastating floods, some residents are only now realising the full impact the deluge had on their properties.
Nine households in one west Hull street alone have been forced out in recent weeks and at least six in another are about to move.
Both Hull City Council and East Riding Council have confirmed residents continue to inform them they are being forced out their homes.
It is feared many more could suffer the same fate throughout the winter months.
There are still 741 households displaced from their homes due to the floods – 190 in East Riding and 551 in Hull.
Paul Nicholson, 33, his partner Andrea Rose, 37, and their children Ellise, four, and Rio, two, of Woodgate Road, west Hull, have just discovered they are affected after smelling damp.
To make matters worse, the family will have to pay the £30,000 cost of the repairs themselves after being told their insurance policy is void.
The couple have been told by Tesco the company will not foot the bill for the damage because they failed to reveal two previous claims they made in 2004 and 2005 with a different insurer.
The claims were for clothes worth £200 stolen from a
washing line and a burglary in which £2,500 of property was taken.
Mr Nicholson, a joiner, said: "We are distraught. To find out you actually were affected so long after the floods seems unreal.
"I don't know how we are going to afford it. My partner and I won't be buying each other presents this Christmas and there definitely won't be a family holiday next year.
"We have just decorated the downstairs of our house and now it will have to be ripped out.
"Some of our neighbours noticed before us, so we thought we better get checked out and we have it too.
"Around here it's been like a snowball effect. You would be astonished by the amount of skips appearing outside as people clear their houses."
Mr Nicholson said five other households in his street have recently discovered they have been hit by secondary flooding.
The Mail understands nine properties in Pickering Road, west Hull, have suffered the same problem.
