Woman's plea for help as Storm Brian creates 'waterfall' in her home

But living on the hilltops on the West Yorkshire and Lancashire border was not enough to escape the problems created by the arrival of Storm Brian yesterday.

As flood sirens sounded in the Calder Valley and the Environment Agency issued warnings, Miss Shuttelton found the steps into her home in the hamlet of Sharneyford turned into a roaring 'waterfall'.

"I moved four days ago, right onto the tops where you'd think you wouldn't get flooding," she said.

"Looking out from my back window, there's a wall just set a bit back and a footpath above set into the hillside. It was probably about 5pm I think when I saw a little bit of a trickle and within a few minutes some of the bricks had flown out.

"We had what I can only describe as a waterfall in our back yard. Water was coming through the kitchen door and walls."

Miss Shuttelton, 45, soon realised that there was little choice but to open the door and let the water run out through the vestibule.

"We would have been in four or five feet of water otherwise," she said.

It was then that Miss Shuttelton also issued a plea for help via the Calder Valley Flood Support page on Facebook, which she knew about from her time in Todmorden.

"People came from far and wide," she said. "They put flood defences on my window, they brought expanding foam, mops, buckets, sandbags. People made cups of tea.

"I got to meet my neighbours. They brought wood and coal for the fire."

One neighbour even came out to lend a hand in his Minions pyjamas, armed with drain rods to help clear any blockages.

A grateful Miss Shuttelton said: "I've gone from helping out and cooking teams for people in the town hall [after the Boxing Day floods], to being the person that was being help this time.

"Almost all of my support last night came from where I lived before in Todmorden."