"I escaped Storm Babet on a raft - I had no idea my home would flood"
A homeowner was forced to escape his flooded home on a raft during Storm Babet and claims he was 'never told' there was a chance it would flood.
Chris Lloyd, 55, had to leave his home in the Catcliffe area of Rotherham, South Yorks,. on Friday.
More than 250 homes were evacuated from the village, where around 2,000 people live, and many local residents have been forced to stay with family or in hotels.
Pictures taken from the scene today (October 24) show workers from Rotherham Council helping residents clear out their properties - now the 6ft high water has gone.
Chris Lloyd, 55, had to leave his home in the Catcliffe area of Rotherham, South Yorks,. on Friday.
More than 250 homes were evacuated from the village, where around 2,000 people live, and many local residents have been forced to stay with family or in hotels.
Pictures taken from the scene today (October 24) show workers from Rotherham Council helping residents clear out their properties - now the 6ft high water has gone.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Okay, so this is the, yeah, this is the after effects of the flood.
00:11 The council have cleared the house this morning.
00:16 They've done an amazing job, I have to say.
00:19 Yeah, and this is what's left of my home.
00:25 It totally, yeah, wiped us out.
00:31 I don't know really what to say.
00:36 What we're doing at the moment is just clearing whatever was in the house.
00:42 This is not my home, this is like, I privately rent, so I do have to find somewhere else to live.
00:48 But it's just clearing out so he can bring his insurers in and do what he needs to do with the house.
00:57 Me, just trying to rescue anything that I can.
01:01 I think, sort of 99% of my things have gone anyway.
01:06 All my photographs, all my personal stuff.
01:09 My photographs of my kids, my photographs of my mother, that have all gone.
01:15 Everything personal has gone.
01:19 And now it's just, I don't know, it's just, where do you start?
01:25 When everything's underwater, amazingly, you're thinking, okay, when the water goes, we'll clean up.
01:32 What you don't realise is what's left when the water goes.
01:36 And the mud and the silt and the smell is awful.
01:43 It's totally destructive.
01:46 You can't save anything.
01:50 Yeah, so, I don't know.
01:52 This was it.
01:54 This was me starting again a year and a half ago.
02:01 It's all gone.
02:06 I know people on the street.
02:11 Yeah, I don't know.
02:13 They're devastated.
02:15 Absolutely devastated.
02:19 But, I don't know.
02:21 We're at a total loss at the moment.
02:23 A total loss at the lack of support.
02:25 A total loss at the lack of help that came.
02:29 And if it wasn't for the people on this road, the community on this road, helping each other out,
02:37 I don't know where half these people would be.
02:41 They would still be, you know, sort of, piled high in all their stuff, not knowing what to do.
02:49 The council, apart from those men that did back-breaking work today, moving people's furniture out,
02:58 there's been nothing, absolutely nothing, nothing from the council.
03:02 It's been, yeah, the lack of support has been appalling.
03:08 Yeah, it has. It's been ridiculous.
03:12 [indistinct chatter]
03:17 I like the dam, because the council, they said they were quite happy with everybody together.
03:22 What happened to them?
03:23 Yeah, well, they come down and took a video, whatever it is.
03:28 And everyone, he was stood down at the retail part taking pictures.
03:32 [indistinct chatter]
03:50 [indistinct chatter]