When the waters burst

ANGRY householders are today clearing up after their homes were flooded by burst water mains.

Four houses in Gale Lane, Acomb, were flooded yesterday after 11 water pipes burst.

On the hottest day of the year, at least 500 houses across the city were left without water, while many more suffered reduced pressure.

Today, Yorkshire Water is helping to clear up the homes, move furniture upstairs and bring in generators.

Christine Elmer, 42, of Gale Lane, Acomb, is annoyed that she has to claim for the damage on her insurance.

"I think it's absolutely disgusting," she said. "It wasn't my fault. I could understand having to claim on my insurance if it was my pipe that had flooded the house.

"But it wasn't. We should get compensation. They wouldn't like it if I didn't pay my water rates."

Mark Penny, manager of distribution and customer service at Yorkshire Water, offered reassurance that repairs were being carried out as quickly as possible.

He said water had been restored to most areas already.

Customers would not lose out by claiming on their insurance, he said, but they would not receive compensation beyond covering what was damaged.

"We do advise people to claim on their own insurance because things get replaced new for old," he said.

"We pay any excess and their premiums will not go up because we reimburse the insurance company.

"They don't get any additional compensation because this sort of thing is totally unforeseen and we do go in to help clean up."

Miss Elmer had planned for her mother, who has just undergone an operation, to stay with her until she recovered.

Instead, she had to dash between her own home and her mother's, cleaning up and making sure her mother was all right.

She does not know when she will be able to move back home.

"It has been a horrible day, really stressful," she said. "It was boiling hot as well and really not the kind of day to be cooped up inside moving furniture. It's been awful."

Meanwhile, firefighters formed a contingency plan to save water.

York Station manager Joe Calpin said a water bowser had been stationed at Acomb and crews would take their own water to jobs.

He said: "We decided that if there was a house fire in an area with low water pressure that we would send three pumps rather than the usual two, to make sure there was enough water."

"There was my dad, he'd got shorts on, half-cut wellies, and a walking stick, and there were two burly firemen on either side of him" - David Lillie

DAVID Lillie was remarkably cheerful, considering he was standing in his wellies on the sopping carpet of his 81-year-old father Richard's flooded home.

Just outside on Gale Lane, workmen were battling to repair the split water main which had caused the problem.

It was 1pm and water was still spurting out and being channelled down a drain. Roadworks signs had been put out, and access to the road was restricted to one lane. Workmen in hard hats were deep in a muddy hole, inspecting the burst main.

"To be honest, they Yorkshire Water have been very good," David said. "I was saying to a Yorkshire Water chap in wellies and yellow jacket God, I've got to go to work!' and he said We will sort it. Don't worry about a thing!'"

Mr Lillie first had a call from police at 6am yesterday asking him to come and collect his father. He was worried at first that it might be something to do with his son, who had just gone away on holiday.

"But they said, There is nothing to worry about. Can you come and collect your father?"

He reached Gale Lane about 6.20am, to find it flooded with water. His father was being helped out of his house by two firefighters. "There was my dad, he'd got a pair of shorts on, half-cut wellies, and a walking stick, and there were these two burly firemen on either side of him," he said.

His father was "a bit flummoxed", Mr Lillie said, but philosophical.

"He's a philosophical old-timer. He said oh, there's people worse off than me. Look at Lebanon'."

Mr Lillie said he had been promised a clean-up team would come round to sort out his father's home, and an electrician to check the electrics. By 1.30pm, cleaning contractors had already visited, and had told Mr Lillie the carpets in both the sitting room and dining room would have to be taken up.

Had he been offered compensation?

"The bloke from Yorkshire Water said We will take care of everything water electrics, everything, no cost to you whatever'," he said. "I'm happy with that. Nobody said as a gesture of goodwill we will give you £1,000, just we will sort it, tidy up, do the electrics. I'm happy with that."

Out on Gale Lane, Yorkshire Water staff were working hard to restore customers' goodwill.

A mobile incident unit' was parked at the side of the road so that Yorkshire Water could talk to people whose homes were still without water.

Distribution manager David Stevenson said staff had been knocking on doors of homes to apologise and offer bottled water.

"I have just spoken to two customers, who have been incredibly fair about this," he said.

A number of homes on Cornlands Road were also without water, because local water supplies had been shut off while the Gale Lane mains pipe was repaired.

Among Cornlands Road residents who were supplied with bottled water was Helen Mangham.

She had been woken at 5.15am by police banging on doors in Gale Lane, she said. She had noticed then that there was no water and there still wasn't eight hours later.

She had had a couple of deliveries of bottled water to help tide the family over, she said.

With temperatures soaring, the bursts couldn't have happened on a worse day, she admitted.

"But Yorkshire Water staff have been very friendly. It is just one of them things. You just have to get on with it."

What caused the bursts?

A power cut near the Severus water tower in Acomb caused a water gauge to register zero. When the power was restored, the gauge remained at zero.

This caused the tower's monitoring system to believe the water container at the tower was empty. Pumps across the city automatically began to work to crank up the water pressure so as to force water up into the tower.

This raised water pressure in pipes across the city. As the pressure continued to rise, there were 11 mains bursts across the city, at what were described as "weak spots" by Steve Stanyon, Yorkshire Water customer services manager.

Yorkshire Water spokesman Steve Parsley said it was still not known exactly why the Severus water tower gauge did not reset once the power cut which initially caused it to register zero ended. That would need to be investigated, he said.

Nor did Yorkshire Water know how much water had been lost, he said. "That was not the priority. The priority was getting customers back on."

There was no danger that the bursts would lead to water shortages later in the year, Mr Parsley stressed.

"There is no problem with water supplies up here in Yorkshire whatever," he said. "At the last count, our reservoirs were 80 per cent full. This is not going to affect that."

How one soggy day unfolded...

2.15am: Householders in Lindsay Avenue, Acomb, awoken by a rumbling noise. They see a mini-volcano' outside plumes of smoke and flames issuing from what they take to be electricity cables.

2.18am: Firefighters called out to the incident at Lindsay Avenue.

Between 2.15am and 5.15am: water mains burst at 11 points around York. The problems were caused by high water pressure, which built up because a pressure gauge at the Severus water tower in Acomb wrongly read zero following a brief power cut.

5.15am: Calls begin to come in about water being off and roads being flooded as people wake up. Police called out to Gale Lane to help evacuate flooded homes. Firefighters also called out.

5.40am: First Yorkshire Water field teams start to go out to identify the burst pipes.

During the course of the morning extra teams are called in from outside York to help with the process 6.15am: More calls start flooding in from householders who wake up to find themselves without water.

6.50am: Yorkshire Water customer services manager Steve Stanyon arrives at the incident room set up at the Landing Lane water treatment works. The incident room is the central distribution point for bottled water being sent out to up to 500 homes left without water on one of the hottest days of the year.

Throughout the morning, staff in the incident room and at Yorkshire Water HQ in Bradford monitor incoming calls and decide how best to deploy their manpower.

6.50am: The Press and other local media are alerted to the problem 6.50am: Yorkshire Water call in their regular contractor Morrisons plus three other contractors to begin work on repairs.

7.30am to 10am: Water supplies re-zoned'. Burst mains pipes are isolated' and water diverted by other routes to try to re-supply as many people as possible.

Before 9am: Contractors arrive at bursts in Gale Lane, Manor Park Road and Heslington Lane, which have been identified as priorities because they affect the most homes and businesses.

11am: Contractors' crews at all 11 of the burst mains. Thankfully, most of the ruptured mains pipes are not on main roads, so traffic disruption is kept to a minimum, Yorkshire Water says.

11.15am: Reports begin coming in that water is being turned back on in some of the affected areas.

11.45am: Yorkshire Water says it is confident it has the situation under control. Even pipes that have not yet been repaired have been isolated' switched out of the water supply network so water can be restored to all but homes in the immediate neighbourhood of bursts.

5pm: All the burst mains repaired and most water supplies restored. Some homes still without water because of work associated with the repairs.

Why is the weather so unusual?

FORECASTERS say unusual weather patterns have seen scorching temperatures hitting York and North Yorkshire well into the evening.

The weather station at RAF Linton-on-Ouse has been the hottest place recorded in the county for the past two days, with a high of 31.2C on Monday and 31C yesterday.

Bill Reeve, the base's weatherman, said the peak temperature on Monday came at 6.40pm hours later than normal. He said: "The sun gets to its highest at midday and you get three hours of day time heating. The reason for this unusual temperature is because this high pressure area is building and building.

"There was a light breeze up until about 2pm which then just stopped and allowed the temperatures to build.

"Three hours later we had the maximum temperature of the day. It is very unusual."