Flood victims feel 'lucky' that flooding hit before coronavirus

Kevin and Catherine Lorryman, whose home in George Street in Snaith was submerged by water, say they believe it will take much longer for the lives of flood victims to return to normal due to coronavirus.

But they said the situation could have been much worse if the flooding had happened during the pandemic.

Mrs Lorryman said: "We've been lucky with the timing, if you can call it lucky, because we've managed to get over the flood bit before coronavirus has hit us. If it had been the same time, goodness knows what would have happened."

Pictures of the Lorrymans' bungalow, with just the roof and solar panels visible above 9ft of muddy floodwater, were circulated around the world after the River Aire burst its banks and spilled out of its normal washlands, flooding local towns and villages.

Now, two months on, the couple, who are currently living in rented accommodation nearby, are looking at having to demolish their home but said they are "stoic" about the situation, despite the delays caused by coronavirus.

Mr Lorryman said: "I think we're stoic about it, we're just getting on, that's all you can do, that is my number one concern at the moment.

"The house, the flooding, doesn't bother me and I'm sure everybody else is the same. We've got to get through this, this is major now.

"It's going to knock the house back and all these houses on the street, and East Cowick and other villages affected, but we're just going to have to sit back, wait, let the people up top do their job, let the NHS do their job, and then hopefully get back to some kind of normality, and then crack on with this."

The 56-year-old said a number of building companies due to work on houses on the street had furloughed their staff and were now unable to complete the jobs.

He said: "It's got to delay it, basically, but everybody, including the guys who work on stuff like this, we have to think of them as well, they've got to keep safe, they have families to look after and, if it were a case of my house standing, nobody doing anything for three months, I'd be happy with that."

Mrs Lorryman added: "We'd rather people be safe."

Mr Lorryman continued: "It's just going to drag all of this out longer. On the other side of this, hopefully when coronavirus is gone and cleared up, we'll probably still be doing this and a lot of other people in the area will as well."

Mrs Lorryman added: "It won't be back to normality for us, for a long time round here."

The couple said they believe some residents from George Street are having to live in rooms in pubs and hotels because there are no available properties for them to rent.

But they said it would have been "horrendous" if the flooding had coincided with the outbreak of Covid-19 in the UK.