Flood Heroes

With our sandbags and flood defences firmly in place, our family car and horsebox parked on high ground, all our ground floor furniture and possessions either yanked upstairs, or precariously balanced as high as possible, hugging our cat 'Candy Morsel' and sheepdog 'Mabel', myself and my 15-year-old daughter sat on the stairs and held our breath.

I had turned off the electric and with the telephone upstairs not working, we were reliant on our mobile phones for for contact. Unfortunately the network seemed to have crashed; we could not make any outside calls. We sat and waited. The water came in from all directions, it was a shock, you never think it will really happen!

We sought refuge upstairs with the animals, and tried relentlessly to get a call out to someone to come and save us.

They were saved in a tractor like this

Suddenly a car horn blasted in our driveway, we jumped up to see a familiar green landrover, by this time the water was already swirling around its 'beefy' wheels! I opened the window to see it was Mike Wood, a friend, who is a farmer up the road. He said he would go and get his tractor to get us out, he then revved the engine, and rather like a scene of a James Bond movie, floated out of sight.

A whole hour passed, it was painfully slow, and with three dustbin bags of clothes and necessary things, we waited on the landing, witnessing our ground floor be swamped in flood water.

When Mike did return, the water was up to the skirting boards on the first floor. All exits blocked from the outside, our only way out was the window in the lounge. When I first lay eyes on the tractor it was crazy, it was enormous, but even then it was all he could do to hold it in the current!

First we passed the bags through the window, then Hannah (my daughter) clambered through it, with the bag swinging around her neck containing her cat! My sheepdog is big - six-and-a-half stone, I would not leave without her, Mike understood and helped to pull her out of the window into the almost hip-high water. Her coat, when this wet, meant she was about ten stone to hold in the water. This tractor, although very high, was meant for two people. There was Mike driving, Hannah sat next to him, with her cat, myself and my big collie; not forgetting the three dustbin bags!

By now all of the roads were flooding rapidly, and becoming impassable, one route out was Brook Lane, however when we arrived there we saw an 07 registered Freelander, and a Mercedes floating around!

We turned around and went down Field Barn Lane instead, which was clear. We did arrive at the Stricklands safe and well, but just looked like some eccentric refugees, with our luggage. We said bye to Mike who used the same road we did whilst getting here, which collapsed just an hour after he had gone by!

Peter and Christine opened up their beautiful home to us. Later, once dry and warm, we realised how fortunate we had been whilst looking at the pictures and reports from the news about the disasters in other areas.

So we would like to say a huge thank you to Mike Wood for being a real hero, rescuing us, and to Peter and Christine who have taken us in on such short-notice! We are very fortunate to have friends like these, so thanks!