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Counting cost of storm misery
Taras Binns and David Hogg YORKSHIRE was picking up the pieces yesterday after flash floods and thunder storms hit the region at the weekend.
It was a case of the storm before the calm on Sunday evening as heavy rain hit West, South and North Yorkshire, causing extensive damage.
The downpour gave way to bright sunshine as temperatures in Yorkshire hovered around the 30C mark yesterday with more of the same fine weather predicted over the coming days.
Photographer Leanne Bolger, 30, of Hebden Bridge near Halifax, was forced to abandon her car on Sunday as rain fell for a number of hours on Market Street.
"It was an absolute mess, I am upset for the shopkeeper's most of all," she said.
Records show the fire service received around 330 call-outs in five hours on Sunday night, mostly from the Todmorden and Hebden Bridge area.
Simon Manfield, 46, who works at the Bookcase store in Hebden Bridge, said: "There was about an inch of water, we got off lightly because no stock was damaged."
In Todmorden up to eight feet of water poured into houses and a short circuit sparked a house fire on one street. Drivers had to be rescued from floating cars on the Halifax Road between Hebden Bridge and Todmorden and businesses were destroyed in Hebden Bridge.
Watch manager David Rawlinson, of Todmorden fire station, said: "We were going from one flood to another. But there wasn't a lot we could do until it stopped because it was coming down quicker than we could pump."
Michael Wilkinson, 46, licensee of Jack's House pub in Todmorden, said: "We were under three feet of water and everything is ruined – the kitchen, cellar, pub, toilets and all my stock.
"Everything will have to go and I will be shut for at least six weeks."
At St Andrew's Church, Undercliffe, Bradford, the tower was damaged when it was struck by lightning and several homes were also hit. The roof of a house in Iverson Dive, Cookridge, Leeds, was blown apart at 8.30pm by a bolt of lightning, causing a fire and the collapse of ceilings.
Cherry Dabill, who lives at the house said: "The ceiling collapsed in our bedroom, if we'd been in bed we wouldn't have stood a chance."
According to the Met Office more thunderstorms are a possibility later in the week, although it is expected to be dry until Thursday with temperatures remaining around 30C.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
