Ongoing misery for flood victims

Mr Baker has been living alone in a caravan for five months

This week marks five months since the summer storms drove thousands of people from flooded homes across England.

Tony Baker had to leave his home in Church View, Darfield, South Yorkshire when it was flooded twice in June.

To protect his home from the thieves who have plagued some of his neighbours' properties, he has been living in a caravan outside ever since, separated from his wife and young daughter.

Mr Baker, a retired firefighter, has been told by contractors that they will not be able to move back in for several months.

He said: "I can't describe how horrendous a time it has been for us.

"I've lost two stone in weight and my wife has lost a stone-and-a-half through stress."

'Tidal wave'

Mr Baker said flood defences were built at the back of his house in the late 1950s or early 1960s and the house had never flooded.

But on 16 June he said water came over the defences "like a tidal wave".

He and other residents helped to evacuate elderly and disabled people from council bungalows near the banks of the River Dearne and his horses had to be rescued from their stables.

Some 250 homes in Darfield were flooded in June

Several feet of water inundated his home, ruining family possessions including his daughter's toys.

Just nine days later, as he and other residents were clearing up, the village was flooded again. About 250 homes were affected.

"We had 24-hour security guards round here at first," he said.

"When the council told us they were going to be stopped we said 'you have opened the flood gates now to every thief in the borough'."

He said looters had taken lead from chimney stacks, broken into homes while his neighbours were living in temporary accommodation and stolen ornaments and furniture from gardens.

"I haven't been targeted because people know that I am living here in the caravan." he said.

'Big adventure'

Mr Baker and two of his neighbours are living in caravans to protect their homes, while his wife Mandy and five-year-old daughter Charlotte are staying with Mrs Baker's sister.

They visit him every day after Charlotte finishes school.

Mr Baker said: "Charlotte thinks this is all a big adventure. She tells everybody that her dad rescued her from the floods because I carried her on my shoulders. She says I'm a hero."

He said he wanted to leave Church View but had to stay.

Mr Baker's home is not expected to be repaired until February

"I can't sell this house now. Nobody will want to buy it. We have been told we will have to drop our house prices by as much as 40%.

"The flooding has destroyed this community. It's kicked the life out of everybody down here."

Barnsley Council said it provided security patrols "during the peak of the floods" to help the police, who were busy responding to a high number of emergency calls throughout the borough.

It said the patrols were withdrawn once the emergency was over.

Peter Holmes, area flood risk manager at the Environment Agency, said a £1m scheme to widen the Houghton washlands, upstream of Darfield, was under way.

"The Houghton washlands on the River Dearne helped to keep the river water back from the village.

"However, the rain was so heavy in June that flooding did occur in the village, although this would have been much worse if the washlands had not been there."

He said the banks were being made wider so they could handle the "extreme rainfall" seen in June, if it fell again.