Storm Desmond: Cumbria residents forced from their homes ahead of the holidays

'I was told that the floods of 2005 would never happen again'

Warwick Road in Carlisle. Many residents are angry that their homes have been flooded for a second time in a decade despite millions being spent on defences along the nearby river Eden (Getty)

In Caitlin Brame’s living room in Carlisle a Christmas tree lies on its side among debris on a squelching carpet. It couldn’t more aptly signify how the floods in Cumbria have arrived just in time to ruin the seasonal holiday – an extra element of upset to go on top of the ruined homes, furniture and possessions.

Ms Brame, 20, a student, is nursing a badly bruised and swollen leg after a soaking-wet floorboard had collapsed beneath and almost pulled her under the water. Most of her possessions now lie in ruins on the bed in her ground-floor room of her shared house. She says: “We have exams in the new year, but we’re going to have to move out and find a new home. Where are we going to go now?”

Michael Johnson pulls open the door of the fridge in his kitchen and watches as filthy river water spills on to the floor. Just 18 days before Christmas, he is trying to clear mud and silt from his Victorian terraced home in Carlisle after it was devastated by the floods.

Moments before, he lifted the soaking-wet floorboards in the hall and peered down into the cellar to find it full of black water. All of the furniture on the ground floor is ruined. When Mr Johnson was rescued, his two leather sofas were floating around the living room.

“I salvaged what I could and when the water came under the door there was nothing else I could do,” says Mr Johnson, 50, a semi-retired builder who only recently spent £50,000 renovating his house in Warwick Road. “When I bought this house, I was told that the floods of 2005 would never happen again, but they have. It feels like a bereavement. Everyone is in the same position, so close to Christmas.”

Outside his door, the police, fire crews and the RNLI are still co-ordinating rescues using boats, trucks and a half-track vehicle. All that can be heard is the chatter of radios and emergency generators. Other homeowners can be seen sweeping mud from their paths.

Rescue workers help to evacuate people from their homes in Carlisle (Getty)

At the water’s edge, a man who does not want to speak has just been ferried from his home carrying a cat in a cage. Four people are being brought on to dry land in the back of a truck. In the distance, a cyclist can be seen trying to pedal through the flood water as people watch from their doorways.

Many in Warwick Road are angry that their homes have been flooded for a second time in a decade despite millions being spent on defences along the nearby river Eden.

Jim Scott, 59, and his wife, Evelyn, who are walking up the street carrying bags of belongings, says: “They have spent all this money on flood defences and what good has it done? This was worse than the last flood 2005. Our house is a scene of total devastation.”

Paul and Donna Glencross are trying to see if they can get back home to salvage some of their possessions. They were rescued from a bathroom window with their two boys and Donna’s 70-year-old mother after water filled the ground floor of their semi-detached house, which overlooks the river Eden flood defences. While those defences were still holding back the flood, water began pouring down the street after other defences elsewhere were swamped.

“We watched the water coming down the road. I’ll never forget the noise it made as it rushed up through the floor. The downstairs was submerged. I think it will only really hit us when we get home,” Donna says.

Chris Missen, 28, a flood rescue volunteer from the RNLI in South Wales, is part of a team that has carried out 300 rescues in these streets since Storm Desmond hit.

“We haven’t stopped. Even now, we’re still carrying out rescues,” he said. “I’ve been on the rescue team 12 years and I’ve been deployed at countless flood rescues. This is the worst I’ve seen in terms of its scale.

“As a lifeboat man, I’m used to rescuing people from the sea who want to get back to the safety of their homes. Here we are taking people from their homes, from their place of safety. The question is where are they going to go? At Christmas time, it’s brutal.”

The debris of daily life has been strewn everywhere in Warwick Road. A print in a broken picture frame rests against a wall and a garden gnome sits outside the local church, St Aidan’s. Inside the church, which has recently been refurbished, hymn books lie scattered on the soaking red carpet. One of the rear pews has been toppled over by the force of the water.

The Rev Keith Teasdale says: “We’ve just spent £55,000 new central-heating system after parishioners raised fund. This was meant to be our first lovely, cosy Christmas.”

Malham Cove in the Yorkshire Dales (PA)

High and mighty falls: Malham Cove’s first

Heavy rain has caused water to tumble down the most famous cliff in the Yorkshire Dales for “the first time in living memory”.

Water flowed over the top of Malham Cove on 6 December, briefly making it England’s highest unbroken waterfall.

Malham Cove is usually dry as water flows through cracks and gullies to its foot before reaching the cliff edge.

Alan Hulme of the Yorkshire Dales National Park said: “The people who saw it have been very fortunate, it was just a fantastic experience.”