TORRENTIAL rain brought more flooding misery to homes yesterday as the heavens opened.

Rain and even hail turned streets into streams and left homeowners battling to save their properties from the water.

Residents in Haxby's York Road and The Avenue spent the afternoon baling out their gardens after a nearby pumping station was unable to cope with the deluge. They say Yorkshire Water should be doing more to help them.

David Handley, of York Road, Haxby, has had to buy his own pump and spent yesterday afternoon trying to prevent the rising floodwater from coming up through the floorboards. He has lived in his home for nearly 25 years and said that problems with flooding only began around seven years ago.

He said: "We complain to whoever we can, but nothing ever seems to get done, Yorkshire Water are absolutely useless.

"It's unreal; gardens are full, and someone is baling out their own garage. We're all fed up with it.

"It is a combination of many things, but in the last few months we seem to have experienced problems with the pumping station cutting out and not working. The pumping station is also inadequate for the volume of water it takes and I understand that the pipe that services it is far too small."

He said that normally residents can hear if the pumping station is working, but Mr Handley said he could hear no noise coming from it early yesterday afternoon.

But a spokeswoman for Yorkshire Water said the pumping station was working as it should.

She said: "It is continuing to work, it is not faulty. It was the sheer volume of water that came down. But it is continuing to pump at full capacity. Nothing is broken."

Press photographer Nigel Holland was at home in Wigginton at about 12.30pm when the weather changed.

Within minutes the rain had turned into hail, which carpeted his patio. Then the hail turned to rain again.

He said that within 15 minutes, Windsor Drive had turned into what looked like a river. Cars were creating bow-waves as they drove along, and the water was lapping towards his front door.

"It's not normal weather," he said. "The rain was like a waterfall, coming down in sheets. It was so ferocious it was bouncing off the roads, the pavement, the patios. Then the hailstones came down, heavier and heavier, then there was more rain."

Other parts of the county also experienced problems.

Three homes and the White Swan pub in Kirkbymoorside had to be pumped out by firefighters after rainwater flooded their cellars.

The pub's landlord Andrew Marley said a few barrels had been lost because of the flooding, but luckily today is when he gets his delivery.

He was planning on opening last night, but was only serving a limited selection of drinks.

In Filey, Humber Coastguard said there was a substantial landslide in the area at the start of Filey Brigg.

Homes and businesses were evacuated and some areas were under 5ft of water.

All roads into the town were closed and residents had to be evacuated due to flash flooding which also closed the school and caused the roof of the railway station to collapse.

The fire service received more than 80 calls for assistance.

Meanwhile, witnesses reported seeing a tornado appear out of the clouds over the moors south of Pickering.