A FAMILY is overwhelmed with the kind-hearted response of the community after their house was flooded.

Kath Beresford, a retired nurse who lives in Broughton, was shocked to discover the bottom floor of her house was inundated with water following a burst pipe under the road.

Within one hour the water had risen four inches to above the skirting boards and filtered through her house.

Mrs Beresford, who lost her husband just eight weeks ago, described the situation as a 'nightmare'.

The 64-year-old said: "It's been awful. I've never been flooded in my life.

"I felt really frightened. I just wanted my husband - he would have known what to do.

"The situation has brought home how vulnerable I am here."

Mrs Beresford, who has lived in her Broughton home since 2015, has been forced to throw out carpets, beds, mattresses and tiles due to flood damage.

The grandma, who owns a holiday let next door which also flooded, piled items in one room to save them from water damage.

"My husband was a physiotherapist so I've put lots of things on his treatment bench to try and save them," she said.

"If I hadn't found the leak when I did, it would've been a lot worse and a lot more things would've been damaged."

Mrs Beresford's daughter, Rachel Phillips, rushed to her mum's aid to discover water coming through the house 'like waves'.

"I literally opened the back door of the house and the water was coming through like waves," she said.

"It was pouring in - I felt distraught seeing my mum's house like this.

"We've all had a really difficult year and for this to happen was overwhelming.

"I'm the only child and didn't want to leave mum on her own - I didn't want to let my dad down either."

Mrs Phillips said it was the support of the local people which lifted the family's spirits.

She said: "I don't know what we would've done without the people of Broughton.

"A friend, Gill McCrae posted an emergency appeal on social media and people were so eager to help.

"We asked for some dehumidifiers because the house was so damp and six people came to the house to drop a dehumidifier off.

"We had friends come to move furniture, fix the guttering and sort the electrics.

"It was incredible. It's like we rung the bells of Broughton and people came rushing to help."

Mrs Beresford described the community response as 'remarkable'.

"To respond to a plea from a stranger is remarkable," she said.

"I'm so pleased people provided me with their dehumidifiers - I'm quite overwhelmed with the response."

The family would like to give a special thank you to the kind-hearted people who helped them including: David Coxon, Joanne Langlands, Gail Batten, Lilla Cooper, Paul and Ian Phillips, Joe English, Anthony Todd, Billy Knowles and Gill McCrae.