Floodwater hits the Dales

WHILE the Dales got off relatively lightly in the recent bad weather, one holiday home still suffered flooding after a lake burst its banks. On the morning of Sunday, November 25, water in Darwin Lake, Darley Moor, began to rise at an alarming rate as heavy rainfall caused tree debris to block the lake’s only overflow.

Within hours the lake had burst its banks and the excess floodwater quickly crept into the downstairs rooms of Darwin Lake Holiday Cottages.

Manager Yvonne Walker said: “We had quite a lot of people staying at the time, but luckily only one of our cottages was actually flooded.

“We made light of the situation to be honest, though, as the flooding wasn’t too bad really. But some of our guests that had become trapped by the waters were forced to hutch their trousers up to their knees and wade to dry land.”

By Sunday evening, staff at Darwin Lake Holiday Cottages had managed to pump the majority of the water off the site.

Yvonne said: “For a while we did consider calling the fire brigade, but we were confident that the situation was under control and luckily, we were right.”

In the wake of the flooding, staff are now working to clean and dry the one cottage that was affected by the water but are confident the clean-up won’t take too long or cost very much money.

Throughout the rest of the Dales there was reported flooding at Baslow and Ashford-in-the-Water, but similarly both incidents were fairly short lived.

As ever, water at Darley Bridge was extremely high with the recent downpour but, luckily for residents, the river just about stayed within its banks and Environment Agency flood warnings were soon removed from the area.

The story nationally was entirely different, however.

The Environment Agency has called the latest deluges the worst since 13 people died and 55,000 homes were flooded in 2007.

At the time of publication there were still 200 flood warnings in place nationally as water levels continue to rise.