Mary McHarg is rescued by firefighters. Picture by Ray Lloyd.

THE village of Hampton Bishop was badly hit when the River Lugg sneaked in through the back door at the weekend.

The highest levels of water since records began on the Lugg in 1944 saw the swollen river swamp the area soon after lunch on Sunday.

More than 70 people were evacuated and 41 men and women, including staff, were moved from Hampton House residential home to safer accommodation.

Others decided to stay in their homes but, acting on advice, a further 10 decided to leave on Monday morning and were taken out by rescue boats.

Many of the homes in the village have been flooded and people have described the events as the worst in 50 years.

Herefordshire Council staff alerted residents to potential flooding on Sunday morning, knocking on doors and advising them to get personal things together and prepare for evacuation.

As the Lugg continued to rise rapidly, at six inches every half hour, emergency services decided it was time to take action and to offer people a place of safety.

Members of the fire service, the police, the army and volunteers from Hereford Land Rover Club joined forces to carry people from their homes and take them through floods to boats and 4x4 vehicles.

Many people were met at the edge of the water by friends and relatives while others went to a rest centre at Hereford Leisure Centre, where St John Ambulance and social care workers gave assistance.

Residents removed from Hampton House were taken to community hospitals in Hereford, Ledbury, Leominster and Kington.

During the evacuation there was concern for one resident, who needed to keep a hospital appointment for treatment.

Help was sought from local farmer Kier Rogers to transport the patient on a low-bed trailer pulled by a tractor through the water to a waiting ambulance.

Mr Rogers, who lives near the Bunch of Carrots pub, stayed in his home to help out where he could but his wife and children were evacuated on Sunday.

Around 10 villagers chose to stay in Hampton Bishop, including the new owners of the Bunch of Carrots - who only took over the pub six weeks ago.

Landlord Tom Wortley said: "We were serving lunch on Sunday when we had to ask everyone to leave."

At Whitehall Reclamation, in Whitehall Road, Hampton Bishop, staff stood in flood water on Monday trying to salvage some of its goods.

On Tuesday afternoon, firefighters used specialist high-volume equipment to pump away water from the village.

Excess water was pumped at 7,000 litres a minute from Mordiford Bridge into the low-running River Wye, which was able to take the extra capacity. The water was not able to escape the village quickly enough by natural means.

The fire service worked in conjunction with the Environment Agency and three of their pumps were also used.

11:02am Thursday 26th July 2007

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