Calderdale flood victims survey the damage: 'I can’t go through this again'

Homes, pubs and other businesses, many left uninsurable by previous flooding, have been ruined by the rampaging river Calder

Eighteen months ago the Tour de France raced down Mytholmroyd high street. This weekend it was the Calder that rampaged down the road, the river having burst its banks during the wettest Boxing Day recorded in the West Yorkshire town. It showed no mercy, putting in windows, upturning industrial fridges, devastating the community centre, and hitting a former travel agency with such force that most of it collapsed into where the river should have been.

At 3pm on Saturday, the Calder was at 5.65m, the highest level recorded and more than 3.5m above its usual peak. In the Dusty Miller Inn, landlord Christian Pollitt and his family watched with horror from their first-floor flat. Up, up and up the river rose, until it was too late to escape.