A YOUNG family was rescued after becoming trapped in their home by rising floodwaters, a North Yorkshire fire service spokesman said this afternoon.

Firefighters were called to the house in Sinnington, near Pickering, after a couple and their baby were stranded in their home close to the A170, which was closed by the flooding River Seven. They had been rescued when emergency services arrived.

Meanwhile, centres were set up in local schools for people left without homes by floodwater in Thirsk and Pickering.

In York, a flood watch was put in place on the River Ouse.

A severe weather warning was issued by the Met Office this afternoon. Very heavy rain was forecast for North Yorkshire and the East Riding.

The main A170 road through Pickering was breached by rising water levels today causing traffic chaos.

"The main road through the town, Westgate, has been reduced to single lane traffic because the water level is so high," said an eyewitness.

"There are loads of tourists around who don't know what is going on." Peter Fisher, landlord of the Rose Inn, at Beck Isle, in Pickering, spent more than six hours building flood defences.

"I can't believe that it's starting to flood in August, it's at the height of the tourist season when I do some of my best trade."

In Sinnington, about ten houses were flooded after the River Seven burst its banks. About 30 were cut off from the rest of the village by the water, although no evacuations had been carried out.

Catherine Stephens, landlady of the Fox and Hounds pub, in Sinnington, said the water levels were higher than they had ever been. "There are people in the village who have lived here 40 years who have never seen the water this high," she said.

Firefighters reported emergency calls across the county as RAF Leeming's weather station recorded the highest one-day rainfall since records began in 1971. Between 10am yesterday and 7am today, 86.4mm of water was collected. The previous highest, in August 1971, was 48.1mm.

The fire service joined Humber Coastguard and police as 70 holidaymakers were evacuated from a flooded caravan park. The operation, which started at 5.30am today, came after three days of rain caused a beck to burst its banks at the park in Burniston, near Scarborough.

Rescuers used an inshore lifeboat and a smaller dinghy to take the holidaymakers to higher ground.

A coastguard spokesman said: "They included children and elderly people and they have now been taken to Burniston village hall."

Flood watches remained today in Stamford Bridge and the East Riding of Yorkshire, in parts of the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors and in the Vale of York. York was not so far considered to be at risk.

About 1,000 homes and businesses in villages near Malton were left without electricity last night after what was thought to be a weather-related fault.

Villages including Westow, Burythorpe, Howsham and Birdsall were among the worst affected by last night's power cut which happened at 6.20pm. Homes at Westow were affected by a second fault today.

Northern Electric workers spent several hours trying to locate yesterday's fault before power was returned to properties just before 10pm last night.

Their efforts were said to have been hampered by the bad weather.

Rod Gardner, systems operations manager at Northern Electric, said last night that staff were working extremely hard to rectify the situation and let people know what was happening.

Train operator Arriva said no services could run between Knaresborough and Harrogate and on to Leeds. GNER said none of its services in the region were affected.

The weather has caused the postponement of the fundraising Picnic At The Palace, which was planned at Bishopthorpe Palace tomorrow. Tomorrow's Tockwith Show is expected to go ahead.

Updated: 16:00 Friday, August 02, 2002