Storm Christoph: Lymm couple stranded in flooded home with water knee deep

Gabrielle Burns-Smith and her partner are living upstairs in the property in Lymm, Cheshire. Credit: PA

A woman has described watching her home flood as Storm Christoph brought heavy rain and snow.

Gabrielle Burns-Smith, 44, said by 12.30pm on Wednesday she and partner James Dainty, 38, were concerned about water outside their home on Warrington Lane in Lymm, Cheshire.

The couple cleared grates and drains to move some of the water but levels continued to rise, Ms Burns-Smith said.

She said: “By 3pm yesterday the water outside was shin deep and by 4pm it was knee-deep and we were seriously worrying that the house was going to be breached.

“Then it was. We’re still in the house, we can’t go anywhere because we can’t get the car out, the water is just too deep."

  • Gabrielle Burns-Smith describes the moment her house flooded

Both of the living rooms in Gabrielle's house are flooded and she said at 1am she just sat and watched the water coming in through the back door.

Sandbags were delivered to the couple's home by the council last night whilst it was snowing.

Ms Burns-Smith said she, Mr Dainty and their dog Tag were staying in the upstairs of the property.

She added: “We’ve moved everything we can upstairs.

“Some of the furniture we haven’t been able to bring upstairs so that’s just gone.

“We’ve got a freezer full of food but it’s not switched on. All the plug sockets downstairs are under water so we’ve switched everything off down there.”

Credit: PA

All four houses on the lane had been affected by the flooding, Ms Burns-Smith said.

She said they were waiting for the water to subside, but did not know how long that would take.

She added: “We are surrounded by fields full of water and there are hills at the back of us so we’re just waiting for all the water to come down from them.

“We managed to get a couple of hours sleep but you almost don’t want to go to sleep because you don’t know what you’ll wake up to.

“We’ve lived here two and a half years and as we moved in there were new grates and drains put in so we’ve never been flooded here before.

“Our neighbours who have been here years say they have never seen it like this, with this amount of water down the lane.”