'I've cried many, many tears'

Lesley and Peter Bond had to be rescued by boat

Lesley Bond, 61, lives in Hylton Road, Worcester, near the banks of the River Severn.

Her house was flooded in 2000 when she lost many of her possessions and feared for the worst when water levels started rising on Friday, 20 July.

Having your house flooded is such a depressing experience and it was something I had hoped I would never have to go through again.

On the day before all the heavy rain - the Thursday - I was at a meeting of Worcester Action Against Flooding talking about the heavy rain we'd had recently.

There was a gentleman there from the Environment Agency and we pointed out to him the water levels were already quite high at the Severn.

'Children rescued'

We said he'd only have to make a phone call to get the flood barriers put up to protect our homes - and he gave us his word he would.

On the Friday I'd been out in the morning in town and the rain was getting heavier.

Lesley Bond and her husband stayed at their flooded house for two days

My husband called asking if I was at home because he'd heard warnings there could be flooding later.

So the first thing I did when I got back was call the Environment Agency and find out what was happening to the barriers. They said they would be here.

The rain carried on falling and my husband finished work early in the afternoon - it was soon after we heard there was a problem at my niece's school because of the weather.

The fire service was called to help rescue all the children at Cherry Orchard as water flowed into the building.

And we still didn't know what was happening with the flood defences. I rang the Environment Agency again at 9pm, but by 11pm there were still no barriers.

However, they said they would definitely be in place by 2am.

We eventually went to bed and the water at that stage hadn't started coming over the river banks, but there were big puddles.

'Mad panic'

But when I woke up at about 4am and looked out of the window, I screamed.

I just couldn't believe it. The water had gone way past our house and was going along the drive of the house next door.

It was a mad panic.

After the 2000 floods we kept breeze blocks in the tin shed out the back, so we brought them out to try and protect the house, along with the sandbags we'd already put out.

We had the outside door replaced some time before, but it didn't fit properly and we watched the water come in and soak the carpet we had replaced after the last flooding.

The Hylton Road area of Worcester was also badly flooded in 2000

Our elderly neighbour didn't answer when we tried calling her so my husband managed to battle through the water to wake her up to alert her.

We all started moving belongings upstairs and covered air vents to stop the water coming in.

But the water poured in - up to 6in in the downstairs bathroom and 9in in the kitchen.

I'm 4ft 11in tall and the water outside the house would've covered me by this point - but we were still determined we didn't want to leave the house.

We stayed there on Saturday, living upstairs. After the floods eight years ago we had all our power points raised, so we still had electricity.

But by Sunday I had started feeling really very ill. I had suffered two strokes before and we decided we just couldn't risk it.

We called BBC Hereford & Worcester asking for help and they told us to just stay where we were and someone would come to us.

'Really, really vile'

We got a bag packed and a boat turned up to take us back to dry land.

It was only when we were away from things the situation really sunk in.

I just sat and cried and cried.

When we went back to the house a few days later the smell was vile, really, really vile.

You do lose such a lot, but we count ourselves lucky compared to other people and what they lost.

I do get a bit nervous now when you see the rain coming, and I tend to watch the river levels very closely.

It really takes its toll out on you, and it made me very, very depressed.

I've cried many, many tears.

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