A week after floods hit parts of Yorkshire, two communities are trying to come to terms with the damage.
While the national focus moved on to Boris Johnson’s handling of the crisis, people in the rural community of Fishlake and the town centre suburb of Bentley in Doncaster had more pressing matters at hand.
In Bentley on Thursday, water pumps were removing sewage-contaminated water, vans bearing the names of insurance companies and decorators came and went, and a delivery of mops and buckets arrived for residents to begin cleaning their homes.
At his home in Yarborough Terrace, one of the worst affected streets in the area, Kevin Wingfield described the suburb’s residents as the “forgotten people of Doncaster”. He said they had had more support this time than during the floods in 2007, when two people died in Sheffield, but more could and should have been done.
“It has been totally devastating again. We are back in that same place again of losing everything. And there is some frustration about how much support we got compared to other communities, but we have shown that we can get through this together,” he said.
Wingfield, 52, and his wife, April are the main carers for Wingfield’s father, Kenneth, 78, who has vascular dementia and was too distressed to voluntarily leave their home. They had to barricade him in an upstairs bedroom until he was rescued by a volunteer, Mark Ibbertson, on Friday.
With his father now safe, Wingfield said the family had begun to assess the damage. He said they were not insured and were still paying off debts from the 2007 floods.
Despite their circumstances, they were helping others. The night before, Wingfield had used a camping gas bottle to cook 45 pots of chilli and rice for local people. Another resident cooked a batch of jacket potatoes so that neighbours who had been living on a diet of cold sandwiches for days could have a hot meal.
April Wingfield described the anxiety she felt every time the rain returned. “This is no way to live,” she said. “Something needs to be done about this because we live in constant fear. Many of us now can’t even get insurance. I haven’t cried yet because if I start I won’t be able to stop.”
In Fishlake as the rain began to fall again, army officers were using JCB trucks to deliver sandbags to homes but some streets remained submerged and residents sought refuge in makeshift shelters in cafes and pubs.
At the Hare and Hounds, the publicans Angela and Scott Godfrey had been cooking hot meals round the clock while locals slept on camp beds in the bar area.
Linda Bushell, who had been there for seven days, said: “I saw the light on and they let me in. My house was completely flooded and we have been here ever since. I appreciate it so much and this is what it has been like in the whole village. Everyone coming together when it mattered.”
