How Calderdale is recovering from the floods and torrential downpours

Partner organisations worked across Calderdale to deal with flooding emergencies across Calderdale last night as parts of West Yorkshire battled against the effect of at times torrential rain.
Many parts of Calderdale were hit by flooding over the weekendMany parts of Calderdale were hit by flooding over the weekend
Many parts of Calderdale were hit by flooding over the weekend

Calderdale Council, West Yorkshire Police’s Calderdale Valleys, West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, the Environment Agency, Yorkshire Water and Met Office staff were all involved on the ground as problems peaked late into Sunday evening.

Flood sirens were sounded in Walsden, Todmorden and Hebden Bridge and communities all along the River Calder were put on alert, while road flooding also caused serious issues at locations not just in the Calder Valley but also Halifax.

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Flood wardens were also out among their communities as people battled to keep water away from properties as much as they could.

On social media this morning wardens were reporting on what had happened at some of the worst-hit spots, with Todmorden-based flood warden Keith Crabtree indicating that rainfall measures at several sites in and near the Calder Valley indicated up to 86 millimetres – more than three inches – of rain fell in the past 24 hours but the majority of it in a ten hour window.

“Considering the area of catchment this is a lot of rain for the valley to cope with and as a result flooding occurred in many locations but I hope nobody got any serious flooding in their properties,” wrote Keith who said on the Calder Valley Flood Support Facebook page that he had seen many cellar pumps working pumping water out.

He reiterated concerns about some drivers reaction to floodwater, urging them to take notice of road closure signs as they were there for a reason and asking them to keep speed down in flooding areas to prevent bow waves overtopping property flood defences in addition to risking damage to their vehicles.

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Roads which were closed for a time included Burnley Road opposite Centre Vale Park, Todmorden, Rochdale Road near Walsden Railway Station and Halifax Road at Callis, Hebden Bridge.

Buses were back running normally today but there were still problems affecting some rail services.

Another flood warden, Trevor Bannister, also writing on the facebook page, said road closures had now been lifted although there was still a bit of debris on the road at Callis and Walsden.

Mr Bannister said council gulley wagons were this morning clearing areas they could not normally get to, for example the contraflow section at flood alleviation works in Mytholmroyd, and the Environment Agency had only stood staff down a few hours earlier after being on duty all night.

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He wrote: “There has been some property flooding, mainly to basements. A small number of properties had water in at the ground floor level.”

Mr Bannister also commented on how random the levels of rainfall can be: “Sunday we were forecast to get 10mm to 20mm of rain, we got significantly more, with 66mm recorded at Gorpley, but only a few miles away at Whitworth it was just 10mm.

“It was hit and miss where the rain fall and the Calder catchment got a lot of hits,” he said.