VIDEO: Around 100 people STAY put on flooded holiday park in Northampton despite rescue attempts following Storm Henk chaos

Around 100 people have decided to STAY on a flooded holiday park in Northampton despite multiple warnings to evacuate.

Billing Aquadrome, which sits on a flood plain, has felt the devastating effects of the heavy rainfall from Storm Henk in the first two days of the New Year.

On New Year’s Day (January 1), residents and holiday makers were told to prepare to ‘evacuate immediately’, with many reportedly taking that advice.

The next day (January 2), the park’s flood sirens sounded and hundreds more fled for safety.

On Wednesday (January 3), the Environment Agency’s flood warning was escalated to “severe” and a “danger to life”. This has now been de-escalated, but there is still a flood alert in place.

Around 130 people stayed put on site, according to Northamptonshire Police, despite all the warnings to evacuate and much of the Aquadrome being underwater.

A multi-agency rescue operation was deployed yesterday afternoon (Wednesday) to recover the remaining 130 people.

Despite the authorities’ efforts, just 31 people, including two children, were rescued by fire crews, leaving an estimated 99 still on site.

Last night (Wednesday), a spokesman for the fire service said: “Twenty-nine adults and two children, along with a number of pets have been evacuated today as part of the rescue operations. Crews are continuing to carry out a systematic search of the 1,750 static homes. They have made contact with and evacuated everyone who wanted to leave, however, a small number of residents have chosen to remain in their properties.

“Due to the scale of the incident additional resources were requested from neighbouring fire services who provided two additional boats. This enabled Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service to continue responding to the flooding at Billing Aquadrome whilst also attending other incidents around the county.

“Also supporting the response were Northamptonshire Police and the other LRF partner agencies, as well as volunteers from Northamptonshire Search and Rescue.”

The spokesman said the service expected that the operation at Billing Aquadrome would be scaled down.

However, today (Thursday), a weather warning for rain has been issued for Northampton, which could lead to further flooding.

Met Office has issued the yellow warning from midday today until 3am Friday (January 5).

The weather authority says that another spell of rain falling onto saturated ground, “may lead to further flooding and travel disruption”.

As well as the weather warning, a flood warning also remains in place for Billing Aquadrome and the surrounding area. The Environment Agency warns people in the area to “remain safe and be aware of your local surroundings” and to avoid contact with flood water. An update from the agency is due to be issued before 4pm today.

In November, the administrators temporarily responsible for Billing Aquadrome, Grant Thornton LLP, confirmed that residents and holidaymakers must leave the site on January 6 until February 6 as ‘required under the licencing agreement with the local authority to operate as a holiday park’.