Residents left feeling ‘helpless’ as homes damaged by floods

Derbyshire was one of the counties badly affected by Storm Babet, which caused widespread flooding over the weekend.

A resident looks at a local authority worker collecting damaged furniture from outside a property on Sherwood Street in Chesterfield, as the clean up begins in the aftermath of Storm Babet (Joe Giddens/PA) (PA Wire)

A flood-hit community has pulled together to support each other in a similar way to the Covid pandemic, a councillor has said – as “helpless” residents share their devastation at the damage they have suffered.

Derbyshire was one of the vast swathes of England that had been badly affected by flooding caused by Storm Babet over the weekend, with a woman in her eighties found dead at her home in Tapton Terrace, Chesterfield, on Saturday.

Residents living in Sherwood Street in Chesterfield have today been trying to repair some of the damage floods from the nearby River Rother have caused to their homes, but many have no idea how long it will be until they can move back in.

The street is filled with piles of furniture, carpets and personal belongings that have been ruined by waist-height water and the mud and debris that it left behind.

Mother-of-one Coral Curtis, who bought her home in the quiet residential street just eight months ago, said she knew the area had flooded badly in 2007 but did not think she would be affected because the area has flood defences.

Her home flooded while she was at work, so her brother had to wade through the water to rescue her dog who was upstairs at the property.

She was sweeping water out of her gutted home when she spoke to the PA news agency.

She said: “My brother phoned on Friday and asked me if my house was okay, I said ‘I don’t know, I’m at work, why?’.

“I didn’t even get any warnings that it was happening so I didn’t know at all.

“When I got here, the water was up to my knees. The mud came through the house and hit everything on the way.

“Everything has been taken out, all the flooring, all the furniture, everything from the kitchen. It all had to be put outside for the council to get it.

“Now we’re just trying to scrub it because it absolutely stinks. It was grim, it smells like sewage.

“It’s a little bit fresher in here now but it needs to dry out. We need to start from scratch again.”

She is currently staying a friend’s house with her two-year-old daughter and her dog.

She said: “I cried when I first saw it. My dad told me not to come down the first day because there was nothing I could do so there was no point.

“I came Saturday to get a few bits for me and my daughter. It was very emotional, I don’t know how to describe it.

“I don’t know how long it will take to sort, it will be a long time for things to start happening. It’s horrible how far it has spread.

“I’m not sure yet what has been ruined. Anything that wasn’t too badly damaged I moved upstairs but I haven’t really looked yet.

“One of my neighbours has only been here a month. Another one has only been here about five months, so I don’t know what they are going to do either.”

Mick Cook, a landlord who has owned a house on Sherwood Street since 2009 and also used to own another property on the same road when the area flooded in 2007, said he did not want to think about how much it was going to cost to repair the damage.

He said: “I brought the house across the road in February 2007 and in June that year, I had just finished decorating it and then it flooded.

“This time seems worse. Everything is damaged. We have to rip the whole floor up, the gas fire has had to go. The plaster has to come off.

“I don’t have flood insurance because I rent it out, [my tenant] Simon has contents insurance but the kitchen, the bathroom, everything that is fixed isn’t covered.

“I don’t want to think about how much it will cost to fix it. We’re trying to do a lot of it ourselves.

“I’m an electrician and my mate is a builder. If we get people in we’re probably looking at £15,000 to £20,000. My two sons are also going to come down and help out with stripping it.”

He also shared his fears that the house will take a long time to dry out because of the cold weather.

He said: “It isn’t going to dry out in winter. When the road flooded last time, it was June and I didn’t get back in there until June the following year and that was when the weather was warmer.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen this time. It will take ages to dry out. I’ve got to take the kitchen out and all the floors and while we’re at it, we’re going to redecorate all of it from top to bottom.”

His tenant, Simon Tart, said it was “horrendous” to see the damage done to his home, which he has lived in since 2009.

He has now been forced to stay with his mum and dad who live nearby while the house is sorted.

Explaining what happened when the house flooded, he said: “The river is right at the back of the house.

“At 10am I went to the shop and there was nothing in the garden, but by half 12 it was all the way up the garden.

“I have never seen it do that before. When the river gets high it does come into the garden but this time I knew it was coming to the house because every 20 minutes, it was just further and further up the garden.

“I got what I could from downstairs and put it upstairs but by 1pm it had started coming through, and it was coming up through the floor.

“Mick told me to turn the electrics off but it was still classed as live so I had to get out. When I left the house about quarter past three, it was up to my knees.

“It had probably gone up four foot when we came here yesterday.

“Yesterday we got here and started pulling carpets up and things like that. The water had lifted the lino clean up in the kitchen and lifted the sofas. The chairs and everything were all over.”

Because of the floods closing all the roads, Mr Tart said it took over three hours to wade through the waist-high water to get to his parents’ home.

He said: “It has been horrendous. I try to be an optimist about it, but when I got back to my mum and dad’s at night and you just sit and think about it, you think ‘flipping heck’.

“You just feel helpless – when the water is coming in, there’s nothing you can do.

“The river has gone down quicker than I thought it would but we’ve got some more rain coming so we’ll have to see what happens now.

“It’s not good, but you know the river is there so it is always a threat, you just don’t think it will be this bad.”

He said he has no idea when he will be able to return home but says his friends and family have offered to help store his belongings for him.

He said: “I don’t know when I’ll be able to come back. The whole place needs to be gutted now. I’ve moved some stuff from upstairs to my mum and dad’s. Some people have offered to put stuff in their garages for me so that’s nice.

“It’s the worst time of year for something like to happen because it will take ages to dry out.

“It’s the same for everyone here, but it’s not nice when it’s the first time it has happened to you.

“It’s devastating, your whole life is turned upside down in the space of a few hours.”

Parts of the Lifehouse Church have been flooded but when people had nowhere else to go, they opened their doors and put the teas and coffees on

Councillor Jonathan Davies

Chesterfield Borough Councillor Jonathan Davies, who represents nearby Brampton East and Boythorpe ward, said his area was also badly affected by the floods – which were so strong, they forced a car up onto a wall in Hipper Street West.

He said: “Friday morning it was raining heavily but I don’t think people had a sense of what was coming.

“Friday afternoon it became apparent there was going to be some flooding. My road wasn’t flooded but roads near me were, so I saw people with buckets trying to get water out of their properties.

“On Saturday, the scale and extent of the damage it became apparent. I was shocked.

“There was a car that had been lifted and came to rest on some bins and a wall next to someone’s house.

“Hundreds of homes have been damaged, their furniture ruined, plaster ruined, and left full of mud and probably worse because it flooded the drains.”

Cllr Davies said despite the devastation, the community has rallied around to help those affected.

He said: “The community has pulled together in a fantastic way. Parts of the Lifehouse Church have been flooded but when people had nowhere else to go, they opened their doors and put the teas and coffees on.

“On Saturday they were sorting food for people and trying to help practically. They have also launched a fundraising appeal to raise money for people who may not be able to recoup their losses.

“There will be quite a lot of people who will have inadequate insurance or no insurance at all.”

The Lifehouse Church fundraiser has so far raised nearly £28,000.

The organisation said they wanted to use the cash to “provide, food, clothing, supplies and the necessary essentials” in the coming months.

We have also seen people pulling together in a way that we saw during Covid times, and now we just need to get behind the residents and the businesses so we can rebuild

Councillor Jonathan Davies

Cllr Davies said: “It is a very sad episode and someone locally has died, but we have also seen people pulling together in a way that we saw during Covid times, and now we just need to get behind the residents and the businesses so we can rebuild.”

He said he understood the flood defences in place in the town had not failed.

He said: “There are flood defences in place and I think that’s one of the reasons why this hasn’t happened in 16 years.

“It was just the scale of the water – and it’s not just Chesterfield that has been affected.

“As I understand it, this didn’t happen because the flood defences have failed, and in some places, the flood defences have meant the water has just come out somewhere else.

“The rain was extremely heavy and it’s run down all through the Peak District through the smaller tributaries which just haven’t been able to cope.”