Mercy dash to flee floods

A family ordered to flee their flood-threatened Great Yarmouth home and seek sanctuary in a nearby school drove 190 miles to Tipton instead to escape the rising water.

Relieved Richard Sims, aged 33, said today: "Some people might think it was a bit of an overreaction but we felt a lot safer – there is no danger of the canal bursting its bank here.

"We were woken at 3.30am on Friday by police banging on the front door and telling us to get in the car and get out of the area.

"They suggested we went three miles up the coast to a school but there were reports on local radio suggesting that people were being turned away because it was already overcrowded.

"So I just got in the car with the family and kept going until we reached my mum's four hours later – she was pretty surprised to find us on the doorstep. I was born and bred in Tipton – so I know where I am safe.

"Our home is 200 yards from the coast and the forecast was for a three metre high surge that would have put the house eight feet under water.

"My wife and two children cannot swim. I had to think of a worst case scenario and act accordingly."

The fork lift truck driver bundled wife Donna, 32, Leah aged 15, five-year-old Charlotte and their pet dog into their people carrier and headed for the West Midlands and his mother's house in Powis Avenue.

The family had lived in Tipton all their lives before moving from their house in Chaucer Avenue to a new home in Great Yarmouth in February.

They had built four feet high sandbag walls around the property and intended to sit out the storm – until the police arrived.

The family headed back to Great Yarmouth today but Richard will be back in Tipton again shortly.

The West Brom fan has tickets for the Black Country soccer derby with Wolves in a fortnight.