Residents use canoes to go about their work in Beverley, a village in East Yorkshire

London, July 6: The rain-ravaged citizens of Calcutta and Mumbai should spare a thought for the people of Yorkshire who are also suffering from some of the worst flooding the region has seen following what weathermen say has been the wettest June in 150 years.

It has been brought on by unpredictable weather patterns in the Atlantic. More rain is expected — much as in Calcutta.

“We had a month’s rain in one day,” emphasised the Indian academic Lord Bhikhu Parekh, who has lived for decades in Hull, where 17,000 properties have been affected by the floods and 10,500 homes evacuated.

He contemplated the water now lying in his garden but he has been lucky. At one point, Parekh, a former professor of political theory at Hull University, and his wife, Pramila, thought the water would enter his library.

“I have thousands of books here collected over 50 years,” said Parekh, who rang his local council. “They came and put some sandbags. A cash and carry not 1,000 yards away has had all its goods and furniture washed away — it’s gone.”

Parekh said he had returned from a trip abroad and immediately made for King’s Cross. “But I was told there was no train to Hull. It was very worrying — my wife was alone at home. Next day there was still no train, the first time this has happened. The River Hull has flooded and there is nowhere for the water to go.”

He pointed out that Hull was near major cities — Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford. “You would think a first world city would be able to cope with this emergency but it hasn’t been able to.”

The images from across Yorkshire and beyond will live in the public’s consciousness for a long time to come. From the air, the village of Catcliffe in South Yorkshire looks submerged. The top of a red telephone kiosk sticks out of the water.

In Beverley, a village in East Yorkshire, navigation is by canoes and boats — much the same as in parts of Calcutta. In Doncaster, council workers have had to delver emergency food supplies by boat.

Gordon Brown moved quickly today before comparisons start being made with President Bush’s allegedly non-caring attitude to the black victims of Hurricane Katrina. Over the past couple of days, there has been a rush of ministers to Hull after the local council leader, Carl Minns, said his was a “forgotten city” with “devastation, lives wrecked, families ruined, and a lot of heartache”.

“I really feel sorry for individuals, some of whom are still staying in temporary accommodation,” said Brown today. “We will do all we can.”

For some, it is too late. Firemen tried desperately but were unable to save 28-year-old Mike Barnett, who became trapped in neck-high water when his foot got stuck in a drain grate behind the tropical fish importers where he worked in Hessle, near Hull. He is understood to have died from hypothermia after an unsuccessful four-hour rescue operation.

A respected district judge, Eric Dickinson, 68, drowned in five feet of water when his Volvo, which is a hefty car, plunged into the raging torrents in Bow Brook, near Pershore, Worcestershire.

People have been affected in towns and cities across the North East, including Sheffield, Wakefield, Rotherham, Doncaster, Leeds and Chesterfield. There has also been flooding in swathes of Lincolnshire — in areas such as Louth, Horncastle and Tetney — as well as Nottingham and counties including Gloucestershire, Shropshire, Staffordshire and Worcestershire.

The mayor of Doncaster, Martin Winter, said some 300 homes were affected in the city’s Toll Bar where, at one stage, fire crews from 26 areas across the country were pumping out 76 million gallons of flood water per day through 26 miles of pipes.

“It has been the biggest evacuation since the war, the biggest national disaster that Doncaster has dealt with in the last 60 years,” he commented. “It may be 6-18 months for some people before we can actually get them back in their homes, if at all.”

Doncaster is one of four South Yorkshire authorities, alongside Barnsley, Rotherham and Sheffield, which have launched the South Yorkshire Flood Victim Support Appeal.

Today, Mandy and Chris Parry, a Sheffield couple, were burying their son, Ryan, 14, who was swept away by the swollen River Sheaf in the Millhouses Park area of the city.

Not long ago, Sheffield had staged the IIFA awards to the delight of everyone in Yorkshire.

At his home in Hull, Parekh said: “It would be wonderful if IIFA could raise some funds for the flood victims of Yorkshire.”