Couple spent thousands preparing Fishlake home for new baby but flooding means they cannot return

After spending thousands of pounds on their new home in preparation for the birth of their daughter, a couple from Fishlake are unable to take their newborn home to it, as it flooded whilst they were in hospital while she was born.

Dan Greenslade and Jade Croft fear their home is ruined and they will not be able to return for weeks, after the nearby River Don burst its banks.

Indie Greenslade was born by emergency Caesarean in the early hours of Friday morning, but when the new family were released from hospital on Friday, they were not able to return home, as their new house in underwater.

Residents of the Yorkshire village have been told to evacuate and so the couple cannot return home to even survey the extent of the damage, but have been told "it's pretty bad".

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For now they are staying with Ms Croft's parents who live in a village nearby, but are angry about the lack of information they have.

"We've not heard anything from the council," Mr Greenslade said.

"I've been trying to get in touch with them, but we don't know when the waters are going to recede enough for us to get back in the village and when we'll be able to get back in... not even move back."

The new parents want to at least return to their home to collect clothes and other items for themselves and Indie, but at present, have no idea when they can return.

Mr Greenslade said he is still wearing the same clothes he went to the hospital in at 6am on Thursday morning.

"We just want to know what's going to happen," Mr Greenslade continued.

"We want to know when the water is going to recede enough to allow us to get into our house.

"We just want to know when that happens, what we need to do.

"Do we need to start speaking to private landlords about renting somewhere, or do they [the council] provide accommodation?

"What do they do?

"What do we do?

"We just don't know."

The couple told how they had only moved into their home three weeks ago and had spent "a few thousand pounds getting it all ready for Indie... we got all new flooring, a dining table, a new kitchen, and it's all going to be ruined.

"We just don't know when we can go back."

Despite the hardships, the couple's family and friends "have been brilliant", Ms Croft said, adding they had been lent and bought everything they need and more.

And it's not just the couple's close friends who have rallied round, the couple praised the "amazing community spirit" of volunteers and told how a local Indian restaurant had delivered food to a pub which had not been flooded, for people who had been forced out of their homes.

Doncaster Council said it is "unable to offer on-the-ground support to residents who are in severe flood warning areas, based on advice from the Environment Agency".

The council added that advice remains for Fishlake residents to evacuate.

Chief executive Damian Allen said: "We are concerned over reports that some residents remain in the Fishlake area.

"South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue crews are on hand to evacuate any Fishlake residents who may be stuck in their homes, and we would urge everybody to take advantage of this."

Mr Allen said a rest centre had been set-up in nearby Stainforth and latest advice from the Environment Agency is that flood waters in Fishlake will start to go down over the next 24 hours.

However, the worst may not be over, with more rain expected to hit on Sunday night and in the coming days.

The Met Office has issued yellow weather warnings for heavy rain on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.

All cover the South Yorkshire area and the crucial catchment area of the River Don, which remains high along its length.

Meteorologist Sophie Yeomans said a weather system moving across Europe will cause a "fair amount" of rainfall across England and Wales throughout the week.

"It is going to be an unsettled week in terms of rain," she said.

The rain is forecast to reach Northern Ireland first on Sunday evening before hitting Wales and north-west England later in the night, and then spreading across the rest of the UK into Monday morning.

The warnings cover the same areas that are still dealing with the aftermath from Thursday and Friday's downpours stretching from Yorkshire to Derbyshire and the East Midlands.

"Some catchments in the north are still sensitive at the moment," Ms Yeomans said.

Several areas were deluged with one month's worth of rain in a day, and a woman died after being swept up in floodwaters.

The body of Annie Hall, the former High Sheriff of Derbyshire, was found in the River Derwent on Friday morning after she was engulfed by floodwater in Darley Dale, near Matlock.

Seven severe "danger to life" flood warnings, all along the River Don in Yorkshire, remained in place on Sunday, according to the Environment Agency.

There were also 40 active flood warnings and 93 flood alerts.

Northern Railway on Sunday warned people in South Yorkshire that some routes are likely to remain closed because of flooding until further notice.

The following routes are affected: Doncaster to Scunthorpe, Sheffield to Goole, Sheffield to Doncaster and Sheffield to Leeds via Moorthorpe.