Families were continuing a miserable clean-up operation today after flash flooding struck homes in east Leeds.
Swillington was one of the areas affected during torrential rain on Sunday evening, with properties in Neville Grove, The Drive and Springwell Avenue all being hit by flooding.
Karen Reed has been told it could be 12 weeks before she can move back into her house on Neville Grove.
Mrs Reed, 47, said: “You could see the water level rising in the road, then it just came up through the floorboards.
“Everything electrical has gone and we’ve got no gas at the moment. The road has flooded before but it’s never come into the houses.”
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Steam enthusiast Tim Cox, a 47-year-old resident on The Drive, battled in vain to stop the floodwater reaching a shed where he stores a traction engine he has built from scratch with his father.
“The water was coming out of the drains and pouring down the road towards the house – the street looked like a river,” he said.
“Luckily [the engine] is well covered and protected so it seems to be okay.”
A council spokeswoman said properties had also been flooded on Swillington Lane, Hawthorne Terrace and Bullerthorpe Lane.
She went on: “Investigations into the causes are still ongoing.
“We know the area received 25mm of rain in an hour, and it may be that the flooding was due to this intense localised rainfall.”
The Old George roundabout in Garforth was under water on Sunday evening.
One westbound lane of the A63 Selby Road remained closed yesterday between the roundabout and Austhorpe.
Police temporarily shut the M1 in both directions near Leeds on Sunday after driving conditions became dangerous.
Forecasters say further heavy rain is expected on Friday.
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