Homes flooded and power cut amid Storm Darragh

A clean-up operation has begun in North Yorkshire after more than 25 homes flooded and hundreds were left without power during Storm Darragh.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue said the area around Kirkbymoorside was the worst affected, and a "large number of residents" were moved to local shelters by the Red Cross.

Fire crews from Malton, Acomb, Helmsley, Kirkbymoorside, Danby, Ripon and Selby were deployed with rescue gear, a boat and a high volume pump between 19:00 and 03:00 GMT.

Sylvia Fisher, who lives in Kirkby Mills, said she hardly slept as she was checking for flood damage through the night.

She said: "It came so quick I could not believe it, from 11 o'clock when we went to bed and every half hour after that, I was checking to see if it was coming through the front door, and I did that until 4 o'clock in the morning.

"It's a nightmare, it is just so upsetting."

Mrs Fisher, whose relatives were helping her clean up, added: "The carpets are ruined, the lino in the kitchen has got to come up.

"I am waiting to see if water damage has done anything to my furniture. I will leave it to the insurance to see what to do."

At 06:00 GMT on Sunday, Nunnington residents – who had spent the night pumping out water – were helped by North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue after their pump failed.

In Pickering, river levels were rising on Sunday morning with councillor Joy Andrews telling Radio York that sandbags were appearing all over the town.

She said: "We're still very worried. There are certain areas that haven't necessarily flooded before that are flooding, but just roads so far."

At 08:00 GMT, the Environment Agency put a flood warning in place for Pickering Beck riverside properties.

River levels at Pickering Beck were 4ft 7in (1.44m) at 10:30 GMT on Sunday and property flooding is possible when it goes above 4ft 6in (1.40m).

The highest level recorded at Pickering Beck was during the floods of June 2007 when it reached 6ft 5in (1.98m). Eighty-five properties were affected then causing about £7m of damage.

At the Pickering Flood Alleviation Scheme, the river level was 15ft 5in (4.72m) on Sunday morning. The highest level recorded at this measuring station, in October 2023, was 11ft 5in (3.53m). However, the Pickering scheme was introduced after the 2007 floods.

Hundreds of homes were still without power on Sunday evening, according to Northern Powergrid.

A statement on its website said it was working hard to restore power to all customers impacted by the storm.

It said: "We are aiming to give our best view and timings for getting people back on today, but there is a possibility that some of those repairs will run later into the night.

"For those customers where we estimate your power will be back on at 22:00 on Monday 9th December, we are aiming to have power restored before then, however, we will update when have a more accurate time and will contact customers directly."

In Marton, an elderly couple were rescued by firefighters after driving into floodwater and in Danby a crew retrieved a driver whose car had broken down leaving them stranded between two expanses of water.

North Yorkshire Police urged drivers not to attempt to drive through floodwater and warned there were fallen trees and debris obstructing roads across the region.

Police said they had received 160 reports of highway disruption and flooding and were dealing with about 15 to 20 reports of fallen trees and blocked roads.

In Scarborough, high winds caused property damage with fire crews called to a tree that had fallen on a bungalow - no one was harmed.

The power cuts have mainly affected the North York Moors National Park, where the village of Hutton-le-Hole was reported to be without electricity.

The owners of restaurant Homestead Kitchen in Goathland posted on social media that they had been without both power and a water supply and that the issue was affecting the "entire village".

Firefighters attended two instances of the gable ends of houses collapsing in Leyburn and Newby.

A roof was ripped from a house in York and a a tree fell onto a van in Middleton, though no injuries were reported.

Yellow warnings for wind were in place across Yorkshire until 18:00 BST and there were flood warnings for Pickering Beck, Buttercrambe Mill, Kexby Bridge, the River Esk at Ruswarp and the River Foss in York.

At Nunnington Hall, meetings with Father Christmas were cancelled after the car park was "completely flooded", the National Trust said.

The Santa Service at North Yorkshire Moors Railway was also cancelled on Sunday due to flooded car parks and access restrictions into Pickering.

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