The owner of a riverside cafe in Knaresborough has spoken of the devastation caused by flooding this weekend.
Justine Connolly, who co-owns Marigolds Cafe on Waterside, was forced to close the cafe on Sunday morning just as Storm Franklin was approaching the district.
Heavy rain then caused flooding across the Harrogate district, forcing some residents to evacuate their homes.
Ms Connolly said:
“We’ve got CCTV that we can log in on our phones, so we saw that it was bad on Sunday morning.”
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She said coming into work this morning to empty the water from the cafe was “like emptying a bath”.
Ms Connolly added:
“We have to sweep it manually out, we haven’t got any pump systems.”
She said the floods was “as bad” as those in 2016. However, she added that there was more warning this time:
“The only difference with this one is that we saw it coming. We’ve had texts [flood alerts] for the past three days.
“Even though we know its coming and we’ve had it before, it’s still a horrible feeling. You don’t know how high it’s going to get, when it is going to go away and how much damage it is going to do.”
Despite the flooding, Ms Connolly said staff have started the clean up today and are preparing to reopen tomorrow.
She said:
“Now we’re just cleaning up, restocking and getting ready for tomorrow.”
