Flash flooding rips through road and leaves homes under water in North Yorkshire

A road has broken apart in several places and homes were left under water after heavy rain in North Yorkshire caused flash flooding - with more bad weather to come.

Cleveland Police have a road closure in place in Saltburn-by-the-Sea due to water damage while houses in nearby Loftus flooded on Tuesday (9 July) night.

Sandbags are being offered to residents in Loftus as a yellow warning for thunderstorms and heavy showers, issued by the Met Office, is in place to 8pm.

Cleveland Police posted on social media shortly before 9am about the closure of the road in the village of Skinningrove.

A spokesperson for the force said: "Officers have closed Beach Road leading up to Skinningrove Bank Road in Saltburn due to water damage to the road. The council is aware and is also attending the scene.

"Drivers are urged to avoid the area whilst the incident is dealt with. Thank you for your patience."

In nearby Loftus, several properties flooded on Tuesday night including the home of Paul Jones-King which was hit twice within five hours.

The homeowner said he returned home to find water in the property and cleaned up before cranking the heating up and setting the dehumidifiers away before heading to bed.

Just one hour later, Mr Jones-King was awoken by a knock at the door and found his home had been flooded again - this time with four inches of water.

"The water was worse than it ever was," he told ITV Tyne Tees. "But this is now the third time in four weeks that we've had water through the house from exactly the same situation."

Mr Jones-King said he has lived in his property for 20 years and had never experienced flooding there until the last three years, during which time has been hit five times.

"It's just not sustainable," he added. "The house isn't somewhere you want to live. We had slugs crawling up the walls and all sorts because it (the water) was so high up - it's just disgusting."

Aiden Sloane's house in Loftus was also affected.

He told ITV Tyne Tees: "It was a thunderstorm of quite epic proportions really - for about two hours it came down.

"There was a torrent of water down the hill into the beck, the beck back flooded, and where they all cross the road the drainage system just couldn't cope with anything. It lifted the drains and flooded the whole area."

Mr Sloane said flooding of this kind is becoming a regular occurrence.

"It used to happen once every ten years," he continued. "But now it's happening two or three times - this is the second time it's happened this year."

The homeowner said the property had not suffered much damage owing to his speedy actions to lift the carpets up and move electrical items and ornaments up a height.

Loftus Town Council on Tuesday night was offering residents sandbags.

Posting on Facebook at 9:20pm, a spokesperson for the authority said: "Loftus Town Hall is now locked up.

"Please contact Cllr Wayne Davies if in urgent need as he has taken bags away for those who need them overnight.

"If any resident needs sandbags please go to Loftus Town Hall. This post will be updated further in due course."

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