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Vigilant for the next time the waters rise
From its airy source high on the Pennine moors at Birds Edge to its meeting with the Don, the River Dearne meanders down through half a dozen villages.
Even when much of the landscape was dominated by coalmines and spoilheaps, to generations of local people the river somehow managed to be a haven of tranquillity. Now that all the pits have disappeared, on fine days there are stretches of the Dearne that look as biscuit-tin beautiful as any river in England.
Nowhere epitomises its scenery more than the riverbanks in the country park known as Longfields at Darton, a community of 16,000 people five miles north of Barnsley. Right through the summer, families go there to picnic, local children fish, and grey wagtails flash bright yellow in the sun as they dance about the shallows in search of insects.
But twice within 10 days in June 2007, and yet again the following January, the villagers' relationship with their much-loved river changed, perhaps forever. Literally overnight, their picturesque friend turned in to a raging enemy. The Dearne rose to more than eight feet above the normal summer level, making Darton one of the most severely flooded communities in Yorkshire.
"After the waters receded and people finally got back into their homes, those floods continue to have an effect on many of us," says Jill Auty, who runs the post office with her husband Anthony.
Like many others in Darton, they recall a "roaring noise" and suddenly a metre of water coming from nowhere. They had tried to make sandbags using mail sacks, but it was too late. Everything downstairs was ruined. "There's now a sudden silence when the weather forecast comes on TV. My son's had counselling because he found it very hard to come back after the floods. Even now he won't sit in the conservatory when it's raining."
For Jill and Anthony, the only way to cope with the unease of living next to a river that can wreak havoc has been to join the Environment Agency's flood warden scheme. They are among the five wardens appointed for Darton. There are other helpers known as flood volunteers who can be called up at short notice if the Dearne overflows.
All villages along the river now take part in the scheme, a sort of modern-day version of the wartime Home Guard.
It's a voluntary job which most of the time involves little more than keeping an eye on the forecast, and – in the event of heavy rain – popping down to the bridge that links the village with the Longfields beauty spot to check the metal gauge measuring the river level.
On a normal day it should read about 0.3 or 0.4 metres high, but if the river heads ominously towards the 1.4 metre-mark then it is time to quietly activate a well-rehearsed plan.
"We don't issue an actual flood warning to villagers straight away," Jill says, "because the last thing we want to do is panic people. But we get on the phone to other flood wardens down the catchment, places like Bolton-on-Dearne, because a few hours later they'll likely be getting whatever river level we have."
At this point the wardens are also in direct phone contact with the Environment Agency's flood incident room at Leeds, receiving information that's coming in electronically from gauges elsewhere in the Dearne catchment, and waiting for the word to start warning local people.
Before any of this happens, Jill and other wardens, among them local accountant Melvyn Lunn, are constantly updating a database of all residents who live in the at-risk areas.
They need to know not just who's registered as living at each address but information such as whether they are alone or infirm and require priority assistance. Also, the wardens need to have contact details for vulnerable people's relatives or friends, someone who could help move them out and provide accommodation.
Able-bodied villagers, too, are kept on the database. These people may be drafted in to assist with moving others from their homes or rolling up their sleeves to get on with sand-bagging.
An unmarked green lorry container – known as the flood store – stands next to the recycling bins in Darton's village car park. This is
where tons of sand, hundreds of sacks and several wheelbarrows are kept in readiness for the next visit by the Dearne. In fact, last November Darton was once again on flood watch, but the waters receded and the flood store remained unopened.
This week saw a return of localised flooding in Sheffield city centre.
If and when the time comes then it's door-knocking time for Jill and the other flood wardens. Although residents can sign up for an automated telephone warning system, experience has taught the Environment Agency that a warning from someone with a familiar face – and faces don't come more familiar than those who run the post office – is more likely to be taken seriously.
Melvyn Lunn says: "We were told the first time that it was a one in a hundred-year event, then it happened 10 days later and again six months after that, so we have to be realistic. I suppose the knowledge we are building up will one day be useful for the whole village. When the floods came the last time no one had a clue what to do."
From the Environment Agency's point of view, it makes sense to have as many local people on the ground as possible when heavy rain brings the risks of flooding. Graham Lindsey, the agency's flood incident management officer in Yorkshire, says the scheme had been operating well on the upper reaches of the Calder and the Aire prior to the 2007 floods.
"Since those severe floods the number of flood warden groups in Yorkshire have more than doubled to 30, many of them in South Yorkshire villages that saw flooding for the first time.
"Each group can contact our incident room directly and get a clear picture of the flood risks. It could well make the difference between a lot of people going into panic mode and the whole situation being calmed down."
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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
