Sheds and oil tanks float down roads as Yorkshire copes with extreme floods

Heavy rainfall on Tuesday, July 31 led to widespread flash flooding across the region.

Pictures and videos on social media showed widespread flooding across the Swaledale area in the Yorkshire Dales.

Roads resembled rivers, with many cars stranded, and fields were underwater

Rescuers reported seeing sheds and oil tanks floating down roads as "100 or more" homes were affected.

Bridge collapse

A bridge in Grinton also collapsed under the strain of the downpour.

The main road between Grinton and Leyburn was shut after more than 3.2inches of rain fell in the Yorkshire Dales in the space of a few hours.

The monthly average in the area for this time of year is 3.5inches

The fire service said it received around 115 calls to flooding incidents in Leyburn and Reeth on Tuesday evening.

A spokesman said: "We had several appliances as well as our swift water rescue teams and high volume pumping appliance within the area attending various incidents involving flooded properties and cars stuck in floodwater."

Richard Hay, rescue controller at Swaledale Mountain Rescue Team, said the evening was "one rolling incident".

He said: "We deployed our members and boats. It was pretty much a rolling incident and we attended around six separate incidents.

"People were trapped upstairs in flooded houses and we provided welfare checks on them, then our colleagues from the fire and rescue service evacuated them.

"Businesses in the area will be affected by a loss of visitors. It is the busiest time of the year for tourism and businesses that rely on visitors will lose out because the villages have been cut off."

Freak hailstorm injures customers

An ice cream parlour attraction said customers were injured in a freak hailstorm, and the site of a planned mountain biking festival was left devastated, with locals saying lives would have been lost if the event had already been running.

Steve Clough, also of Swaledale Mountain Rescue, said: "The conditions were so bad that in the end only about 10 or 12 team members could make it there.

He told PA: "The roads were a raging torrent and there were sheds and household oil tanks floating down them."

Mr Clough said his team spent more than eight hours searching properties in the area, rescuing about 10 people, but he added that North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service helped many more and estimated "100 or more" homes had been affected.

"Some homes had a metre of water in them - it was horrific," he said.

The Brymor Ice Cream parlour, near Masham, was caught in a freak hailstorm which left some customers with minor injuries.

The attraction posted on Facebook: "Earlier today along with other areas of the region the farm here at Brymor was severely affected by the storms and flash floods.

"Our parlour suffered damage to the roof, power failures and some visitors suffered minor injuries.

"Our team of staff acted as quickly and professionally as possible to ensure all our visitors were made safe."

Preparations for next weekend's Ard Rock mountain biking festival were under way in Swaledale but the event has now been cancelled.

Local farmer Raymond Caldert told BBC Breakfast that lives could have been lost if the festival had already been taking place.

He said: "I haven't seen anything like this.

"We had a storm here about 20 years ago, called Hurricane Charlie. I think this has been worse."

Mr Caldert added he had not lost any livestock but the flood washed away most of his 160 bales of silage.

He said: "The bridge has gone. There's quite a few bridges have gone."

Landslide on the train tracks

Train passengers faced disruption after a landslip between Carlisle and Skipton.

Northern Rail said trains had been suspended between Ribblehead and Kirkby Stephen.

Nigel Smith, head of highway operations for North Yorkshire County Council said: “Last night we had inspectors out from the beginning of the severe weather event checking flooding hotspots.

“Working with the emergency services and mountain rescue we took steps to check on vulnerable people and closed some roads due to flooding, as a precautionary measure in the interests of public safety.

“We also identified rest centres in case they were required and we are pleased to say they weren’t.

“With the other emergency responders, including Swaledale Mountain Rescue Team, we coordinated the rescue of seven people who were trapped on highways by the sudden flooding.

“This morning we have deployed all our available resources to check known areas of flooding, or road and bridge damage, and also to ensure that the remainder of the highway network is safe for the travelling public to use.

“We will have greater detail once all of the inspections are complete and we can then assess next steps.”

Months of rain in one day

Malham Tarn, in the Yorkshire Dales, had 3.2in (82.2mm) of rain in 24 hours, the majority in the space of four hours. The monthly average in the area for this time of year is 3.5in (89mm).

The Met Office has said storms could dump up to 1.6in (40mm) of rain in two hours in places on Wednesday.

A yellow weather warning for rain has been issued for parts of central and northern England, while a similar alert for thunderstorms is in place in Scotland.

There are 10 flood warnings in place across the UK - from North Yorkshire, Lancashire and the West Midlands - with the Environment Agency saying local flooding is possible due to the thunderstorms and outbreaks of heavy rain.

The Met Office said: "Rain will be persistent and heavy in places across parts of central, northern and eastern England and north-east Wales at first on Wednesday.

"During the day rain may turn more showery in places but with a higher chance of thunderstorms by afternoon.

"Some parts of northern England could see as much as 40mm-60mm (1.6in-2.4in) ofrain through Wednesday, while thunderstorms could produce as much as 30mm-40mm (1.2in-1.6in) in 1-2 hours."

The unsettled weather is a continuation from Tuesday, when hailstones the size of sweets fell in some areas and others having a month's worth of rain in four hours.