Episode 4 Living Dangerously

The British weather is a constant topic of conversation.

Often unpredictable, it's now having an even bigger effect on our lives.

Dangerous floods threaten our homes, forest fires devastate

our countryside and savage storms ravage our coastlines.

Today we find out what happens to Britain

when it's hit by freak weather.

We'll see the stories of people's lives who have been turned

upside down by the totally unexpected...

..and we'll show you how to protect yourself, your home

and your family from disaster.

Welcome to Living Dangerously.

We've all seen reports of tornadoes, flooding and storm damage,

but what's it like when extreme weather nearly destroys lives?

Well, today, we hear two incredible true stories.

Coming up on Living Dangerously...

when the flash floods of June 2005 hit the North Yorkshire Moors,

it's a race against time to rescue dogs trapped in rising water.

We knew, the speed that it had come into the house, that if it continued

at that speed that you wouldn't get the dogs out of the kennels.

And for three teenagers from Brighton, a fun day out in the snow

turns into a terrifying two hour ordeal.

I was shivering and there was nothing I could do,

just praying, hoping when the ambulance is going come.

With home video, actual footage and reconstruction,

we show what happened during these real life weather events.

For those craving a piece of the English countryside,

the sweeping and dramatic landscape of the North Yorkshire Moors

takes a lot of beating, but this picturesque setting

can also transform very quickly into an unforgiving and hostile

environment when the unpredictable British weather decides to strike.

That's a very good boy!

Ray Yoward and his late wife, Mary, wanted to live the country dream

on these moors and moved to the village of Hawnby

on the River Rye in the year 2000 to run a boarding kennels business.

Most of the time it was just a beautiful place to live.

I mean, the surroundings are beautiful,

the people who ran the kennels with dogs, just like we do,

and people just like to bring their dogs here.

They felt that the dogs were on holiday!

'I've had dogs all my life.

'I particularly like German Shepherds.

'Dogs are the same every time you see them.

'They're pleased to see you, they don't answer you back.'

That's very good!

They're a far better proposition than people!

Ray's boarding kennels were in a beautiful setting,

tucked away at the bottom of a hill,

just a few yards from the picturesque River Rye.

The boarding kennels have always had a dedicated following,

with the summer being especially

busy as dog owners head off for warmer climes,

leaving their precious pooches behind with Ray,

safe in the knowledge they'll be happy and well looked after.

On June 19th 2005,

Ray's kennels were almost full to capacity with 29 dogs in his care.

The UK was experiencing a heat wave,

with temperatures hitting the mercury at 33 degrees centigrade.

It was unusually hot.

It was dry, it had been dry for well over a month.

The ground was baked hard, there were no puddles anywhere,

the river was low and the heat was quite oppressive for June.

This was to pave the way for the most unexpected and extreme weather

that endangered the lives of Ray, Mary and their treasured charges.

I've come to meet Ray to find out just what happened.

Oh, look at this view here, as well!

That's actually Hawnby Hill

and there's a walk right the way around it and you can get climb up

the top of it and it's absolutely stunning, the views from the top.

Oh, don't! I'll never want to leave!

So take me back to June 2005.

We'd just fed the dogs, we feed them at four o'clock,

and they'd been fed so they'd been let out so then we would have

just come back into the house and there was a power cut,

so we got a transistor radio, it was red-hot and we just lay on the bed

and I was just laid on the bed in my underpants, it was that hot.

Heavy and thundery downpours had developed across Northwest England

and North Wales, breaking the stifling heat wave.

The dramatic storm spread across the North Yorkshire Moors throughout

the afternoon and Hawnby was to bear the brunt of it,

with almost a month's worth of rain falling in just one hour.

There were thunderclaps, but there was a heavy rain.

The rain was so heavy it was just like looking through frosted glass,

you could hardly see through it.

So at what point did you think, "This is no ordinary downpour,

"this is something a bit more serious"?

When Mary actually opened the window and looked out and saw that the water

was already six inches deep in the yard, and we'd never,

ever had water in the yard, so we knew that it was pretty serious.

And that's when you sprung into action?

Yes, that's when we sprung into action but we did not expect

it to rise at the rate that it rose. We'd never have believed it.

If you had said to me this is going to happen,

I'd have said, "No, it's never done it before, won't do it now!"

The bungalow had stood there for 103 years without it happening,

so you just don't think it's going to happen, do you?

After days of searing temperatures, the ground on the moors

had been baked solid, so there was nowhere for surface water to drain

and with an incredible 27mm of rain falling over Hawnby within just

15 minutes of the storm starting, this intense rainfall gathered on

the moors and gushed down the hills to engulf roads and fields below.

To make matters worse, the River Rye just below Ray's kennels

had been dried out to little more than a trickling stream

and was quickly overwhelmed.

It burst its banks and now a raging torrent

was racing towards the kennels.

The river, you can throw a stone from and hit the house or vice versa,

the house is that close to the river,

but the river would be 15 feet below the house, normally,

so it had to come up 15 feet plus to start coming into the house.

The flash flood from the River Rye was uncontrollable

and water had taken over Ray's yard, surrounding the bungalow

and the kennels next door and with 29 dogs in their care

and their own pets to worry about, Ray and Mary had to act quickly.

We got our four dogs and the two cats, put them on the bed

in the bedroom and shut the door, thinking they would be safe in there.

I only had my underpants on cos it was that hot and humid,

so I actually put my Wellingtons on and cos it was raining so much

I thought, "there's no point in putting any clothes on,

"there's no-one around, I might just as well go out in my underpants."

So that's exactly what I did and by the time we'd got through the door,

the water was already coming into the house.

The kennel block was also filling with water and with the dogs locked

in individual enclosures, there was nowhere for them to escape.

They were getting stressed and frantic

while the rain continued to lash down.

DOGS BARKING

You didn't have time to think about whether you could see through it

or not because you knew that you had dogs in kennels that were locked in

and we had to get out and get them out of there.

This home footage shows how the flood levels had risen

to cover the entrance to Ray's offices and home.

Within 20 minutes, it was four foot deep.

It was that flash a flood. You know like you've seen

the scenes of the one in Boscastle when it was coming down?

It was just like that, just all of a sudden... boompf!

We knew that, the speed it had come into the house, that if it continued

at that speed that you wouldn't get the dogs out of the kennels.

Coming up later on Living Dangerously...

as the flash flood in the North Yorkshire Moors continues

to engulf Ray's boarding kennels,

even firefighters are shocked by this force of nature.

Looking down was absolutely incredible,

like the Somme battlefield, full of water!

Brighton is one of the UK's most famous seaside resorts

and is the perfect place to enjoy a traditional British holiday.

Located in the South of England,

it enjoys an average of 148 sunny days per year.

Just five minutes north of Brighton lies the Devil's Dyke,

a dry V-shaped valley which was created over 14,000 years ago

as a result of river erosion.

The valley is 500 metres deep and the hill is almost 1km in length,

making this the longest valley of its type in England.

Vince Ruocco and Scott O'Malley have lived in the area all their lives.

We've known each other for about two years.

Since then we just skateboard, go surfing now and then.

-We do, like, just insane stuff.

-It's just great to be

with your friends just having fun and just going for it.

They met in a local college a few years ago and soon became good pals.

Sharing a love of extreme sports and a sense of adventure,

the boys really know how to live life to the full.

In February 2009 the South of England

experienced its biggest snowfall in over 18 years.

This was due to extremely cold air coming over from Scandinavia

which clashed with warm air over the North Sea, resulting in thick,

heavy clouds packed with snow.

Although the Met Office had issued warnings,

no-one was quite prepared for the sheer volume of snow that came.

Literally, we had one shower after another hit Southeast England,

Southern England and London itself.

That hasn't been seen for years.

The snow fell throughout

the evening of Sunday 1st and the early hours of Monday 2nd February

and the South of England woke up

to a heavy blanket of snow causing havoc on the roads.

Sussex was one of the hardest hit areas.

Flights at Gatwick Airport were severely disrupted,

420 schools were closed and in the Brighton and Hove area,

buses and train services were cancelled.

Even the city's beach was covered in snow!

The heavy downfall finally stopped around 9am on Friday 2nd February.

Wow! Look at that! The beach is absolutely rammed with people!

Look at the snowmen being made on the beach!

We woke up to snow.

The whole street and the roads were just filled with snow.

When we looked out of the window, straightaway we just got on

some clothes, any clothes and just had a massive snowball fight!

By 12 pm that day, the snow had started to fall again

and authorities had to act fast. 500 tonnes of salt were delivered

to the area of Sussex, in an attempt to clear the roads.

The weather was preventing most people from leaving

their homes and going to work,

but for Vince and Scott it was the chance to have some fun!

It just kept going on and off all day and we were just having

so much fun all day and then our friend called us about six o'clock

and, like, the snow stopped and they asked us to go up to Devil's Dyke.

Throughout the day, locals descended on the valley

and with a gradient of 1:10 and a thick blanket of snow,

it seemed like the ideal place for sledging.

Devil's Dyke is like the ultimate hill.

I personally have never sledged Devil's Dyke before but Vince and Dan

have about a year ago and I remember them telling me how fun it was,

but they've never been on this side, they've only been on the other side

which is the more shorter side, less steep.

By 8pm the temperature had dropped below zero,

turning most of the snow into ice. This meant that the surface

of the steep gradient would have become even more

precariously slippery and fast.

Unaware of this potential danger, the boys had now reached

the top of the Dyke and were preparing to head down the slope.

Instead of a sledge, the boys were using

a short rectangular piece of foam known as a bodyboard.

I remember me, Dan and Vince were just standing at the top

with our bodyboards and we were just looking at the bottom of it

and we could just see the full moon shining all over it.

We could just see the snow reflecting from the sky, kind of thing,

and all the shiny stars above us and it just felt a really special moment.

In search of the ultimate buzz, Vince, Scott and their friend, Dan,

decided they were going to take bodyboarding to the extreme

and attempt to go down the slope, head first.

There were three of us all stacked up, lying down on top of each other.

Dan was, like, "No, no, we're not going to make this,"

he was quite scared but me and Scott were determined to get to the bottom

and we just went for it!

The daring trio set off from the top of the valley

with a drop of 100 metres ahead of them.

We pushed off with a bit of a push and we were picking up speed so fast,

just the feeling of the wind, you know, going across your face,

it felt like we were going 40, 50 miles an hour.

The boys were lying face down on the bodyboards

flying down the valley with their heads just inches from the ground.

Their heavy weight on top of the thick ice sent them

careering down the slope at an alarming rate

and, as it was now pitch black, the boys had very little visibility.

We, like, went over this bump which made us drift to the other side

and from a distance I saw something protruding out of the snow.

They had now been knocked off course and were heading

into an area of virgin snow.

Unbeknown to them, the snow was hiding a very dangerous obstacle.

As they drew closer,

the boys realised they were hurtling towards a huge rock.

SCREAMING

Without brakes or the ability to steer, there was no way to avoid it.

As we got closer, I was, like, "This isn't good,"

and I remember Vince saying, "This is it, guys,"

cos he thought we were going to die.

We initially started to brake with our feet but literally

it was so icy that our feet were just sliding along.

The boys were now reaching speeds of up to 50 miles per hour

and with the ice preventing them from stopping,

they were in a very serious situation.

And that's when we crashed.

CRASHING

All I remember is just flipping in the air and we just hit the ground.

We rolled quite a bit and then like just came to a stop.

All that was going through my mind was, "What's happened to Scott?"

Because he was just screaming, in a lot of pain.

The first words that were coming out of my head was shouting out for help,

just shouting out that we're badly injured here and we can't move,

we just want to let people be aware

that there's people down here that need help.

Luckily Vince, Scott and Dan were with a group of friends who had

witnessed the high speed collision from the top of the valley.

Apparently they could hear the smack of the boulder when we hit it

from the top so luckily they all came running down to help.

They'd get all their clothes off and wrap us up really warm and cos

we were laying on the snow and the ice it was pretty cold.

At 9.30 pm Sussex Emergency Services received a call for help

and immediately sent out a helicopter and an ambulance.

The snow had caused absolute chaos throughout the county and after

receiving hundreds of calls already, they were struggling to cope.

The weather on that day was quite severe. There were several inches

of snow on the ground, up to 11 inches in parts of Sussex

and the snow was still coming down which was a great concern,

add into that the fact that the road conditions make it so difficult for

any emergency vehicle to get to any call makes it a real headache.

Back on Devil's Dyke it was clear that the boys were badly injured.

Surrounded by fields and with no roads leading to the valley

and the nearest property over a mile away, they were completely isolated.

All they could do was wait and hope that help would reach them quickly.

We were soaked through and through,

I could feel the cold and the wet, like, touching my skin.

After an excruciating half-hour wait,

the emergency helicopter arrived overhead,

but the amount of snow and shape of the valley meant landing

was going to be a serious problem.

A massive bright light comes round from the valley,

all we could hear was this noise of a helicopter just coming over us

and it was shining its lights on us but because we were on a hill,

it couldn't find somewhere safe to land.

To make matters worse with the steep and rocky terrain,

there was no way an ambulance could get to the boys either

and with the snow still falling,

this was becoming an impossible situation.

We were worried because we were getting worse.

I was freezing, lying on the snow, my back's getting damp from the wet

and cold, my teeth were chattering, I was shivering and there was nothing

I could do, just praying and hoping when the ambulance is going to come.

The boys were stranded and with a temperature of minus two

and a wind-chill of minus ten,

hypothermia was becoming a real possibility.

Coming up later on Living Dangerously...

with the snow continuing to fall, and temperatures dipping below zero,

will the emergency services be able to reach the boys?

I was beginning to think, "Are they ever going to get here in time?"

On 19th June 2005 a sudden and intense thunderstorm

broke over the North Yorkshire Moors

with a month's worth of rain falling in just three hours.

The village of Hawnby was worst hit.

Within minutes of the storm starting, intense rainfall that

had gathered on the moors coursed down hills into the River Rye,

causing it to burst its banks and now a flash flood had engulfed

the home and boarding kennels of Ray Yoward and his late wife, Mary,

threatening their lives as well as the 29 dogs in their care who

were locked in their enclosures with nowhere to escape the rising waters.

We knew that, the speed that it had come into the house,

that if it continued at that speed,

you wouldn't get the dogs out of the kennels.

But worse was to come.

Within half an hour of the storm starting, the rising floodwaters

had become a raging torrent, destroying everything in its path.

It had also submerged the bridge over the River Rye,

making it impassable. It was the only link between

Ray's boarding kennels and the village of Hawnby.

This meant Ray and Mary were now completely stranded,

left on their own to try and save the dogs

still trapped in their kennels.

The bridge was actually under the water,

the water was over the top of the bridge.

We didn't know where we were going to get any help from.

People from the village couldn't come and help. Anyone that was going

to come and help would have to come from this side, up the hill,

and they wouldn't know what was going on, of course.

But it wasn't just Ray's kennels falling foul

of these destructive elements. Hawnby and the surrounding area

had been overwhelmed by the flash floods.

Cars were being swept away by the gushing river

and people were having to climb trees to escape the rising waters.

The emergency services were at breaking point,

none more so than the local Fire Brigade based at nearby Helmsley.

They received 11 calls within an hour,

including this one from a concerned neighbour.

'OK, you've probably had a few of these calls but we live in Hawnby.

'There's a river running through a house and kennel full of dogs.'

'Have they got the dogs in the kennels or not?'

'We don't know, we can't get through,

'the water's six foot high on the road.'

But it wasn't going to be easy for the Fire Brigade

to get to the boarding kennels. Not only had the river

burst its banks, a powerful torrent of water was picking up

and destroying all in its path, as firefighter Ian Pattison recalls.

We dropped down into a valley, following the river to Hawnby,

we got to the first bridge and sat on the bridge on the pump looking across

and where the river is normally about five metres across,

it was about 80-90 metres across, and it was just like a cauldron.

To see pieces of tarmac and stone being ripped up into the air,

probably 15 or 20 feet up, huge lumps, probably half a tonne in weight,

just tossed about like a match in water and seeing the bridge

demolished like that in front of you, it just makes you think a bit harder,

so we backed off the bridge and then had to find another way

so it was about a 10 mile detour to get to Hawnby.

This meant what should have been a ten minute journey

was going to take twice as long.

We do worry when we're delayed like this because any delay to us

means that it's, in this case, 20 minutes on somebody's life

is a long time and we need probably to get them to hospital, anything,

so it is a worry.

The situation was dire for Ray and Mary. They were completely isolated

and within minutes the river had swollen to ten times its usual size.

Their home and kennels were engulfed in five feet of water.

The flood was still rising rapidly, so when Ray finally managed

to wade his way into the kennels, he feared the worst.

When we walked in there, all the dogs were swimming.

There wasn't one that had legs long enough to stand up in the water.

They were definitely scared, barking and swimming for their lives.

-So tell me, you go in there, there's 30 cages...

-Yep.

..30 dogs and all the doors locked, the rain is coming down,

it's up to here on you, that water must have been cold,

how on earth did you get those doors open and get those dogs out?

It's willpower! You are going to do it, it's as simple as that!

So you open up the doors, they're all yapping and wanting help?

-Yeah.

-What was the next thing that you did?

The next thing I did because the water was coming in so fast was

to jump on top of the work surface and knock out the plastic roofing

because I thought, "It's coming up that fast,

"where am I going to put them?" I actually got up on the roof

and Mary was handing them through the roof and I was sitting them

-along the roof like crows.

-Wow!

And one of them was a blind Red Setter and I had the lead on her

and I tied the lead on the weather vane so that she couldn't get lost.

To me, that sounds absolutely terrifying!

Well, you haven't got time to be terrified, have you?

You've got a job to do.

But there was some help at hand...

Ray's neighbour, John Richardson and his wife, Sue, saw what was

happening to the kennels and dashed over to offer assistance.

He actually climbed up onto the roof of one of the blocks

and I was walking along the kennel block and passing them over to him

and he was taking them down and handing them down to his wife

and his daughter in the car park

and they were fastening them on the fence in the car park.

What were the dogs doing? Were they fighting you, were they panicking?

No, they weren't, they weren't.

I got scratched quite a bit with having to lift them up

and put them through the roof, cos I had no clothes on, only my pants,

but it had to be done.

The rain had been thrashing down for just over an hour

and Ray's boarding kennels were completely engulfed by flood water

when, at 6pm, the Fire Brigade managed to get to them,

but they weren't prepared for the scene of devastation.

Looking down was absolutely incredible! It was like

the Somme battlefield, just full of water, like a cauldron of water,

unbelievable sight, and so we knew we were really going into a tough time.

Mary was sat on the roof with about 10 or 12 dogs running round her

on the roof of the kennels and then poor Ray came round the side

of the buildings after doing his rescue, just in his underwear,

just shivering to death, so it was quite a scene to come across, really,

but the challenge is then on.

By now, the storm had started to ease off and even the clouds began

to disappear but there was no escape from the merciless flood waters.

The firefighters worked frantically to get the dogs off the roof

and save the remaining animals trapped in the kennels.

We had a bit of a problem because the floodwater had blocked

the entrance to the kennels by pushing debris against it,

so we couldn't get in through the doors plus the water was still

too deep to enter so we got the cutting gear off the fire engine

and cut the mesh to the kennels and one of the lads was lowered through

the hole and he got the dogs out and passed them back onto the roof again,

so they did a great job there.

And as the rescue operation continued, it became apparent

that Ray and Mary's own pets were at risk.

They'd left them on their bed in the bungalow thinking they'd be safe

and it was kennel assistant Julie Barr who came to their rescue

when she arrived at the kennels to be confronted by scenes of panic.

It was horrendous, it was really, really horrendous.

I saw Mary, my boss, and she said to me,

"Julie, we're going to lose dogs, we're going to lose dogs."

I looked over to the roof of the kennels and there was Ray

on top looking very attractive in his underpants and his wellies,

so I shouted to Ray, "Where are our dogs?"

meaning his dogs, and he said, "They're in the house,"

so I then proceeded with the Fire Brigade to get the dogs out.

The fierce storm over the North Yorkshire Moors was unprecedented.

The village of Hawnby was the worst hit,

experiencing the heaviest rainfall since 1789.

The resulting flash flood took just minutes to engulf

Rye Boarding Kennels and the operation to rescue the animals

over an hour and a half.

Sadly, two of the 29 dogs were lost to the flood

after they panicked and jumped into the water, where they drowned.

Ray and Mary were taken to hospital and monitored overnight.

The surviving dogs were taken in by kennel assistant, Julie,

and then looked after by the RSPCA until their owners reclaimed them.

In the event of flooding,

there are some practical things you can do to protect your pets.

If you're in an area prone to flooding and there's been

a period of heavy rain,

do check the Environment Agency website for flood warnings.

You should plan an escape route

and make sure you have suitable carriers for your animals.

If you are suddenly faced with a flood, take your pets to

the highest point in your property to keep them out of harm's way.

This is also a very stressful time for your animals,

so do give them a lot of reassurance.

When it came to the flash floods that hit Ray's North Yorkshire Moors

boarding kennels, it was something quite unique.

I've been in the Fire Brigade now for 31 years

and there's been lots of flooding jobs but nothing like this,

this was something extraordinary and to be quite honest

taking part in something like that

is a real challenge to you and to your crew.

Not least for Ray,

but the stoic Yorkshireman took it all in his stride.

People have said to me since, was I frightened?

No, I wasn't, I wasn't frightened at all.

I never considered being frightened

and yet when you look at the water afterwards,

we were just extremely lucky that we didn't die!

Coming up on Living Dangerously...

As flood waters recede the next day,

Ray takes stock of the damage but will he have a business left to run?

There was nothing to see but mud and devastation

and it was just a disaster.

On Monday 2nd February 2009 the Brighton and Hove area woke up

to the biggest snowfall in over 18 years.

Wow! Look at that! The beach is absolutely rammed with people!

Look at the snowmen being made on the beach!

Whilst sledging in the steep sided Devil's Dyke Valley,

teenagers Vince, Scott and their friend, Dan, were travelling

at almost 50 miles per hour

when they careered out of control and into a large rock,

leaving all three seriously injured.

I was shivering and there was nothing I could do, just praying, hoping

when the ambulance is going to come.

The boys had been lying in the snow in temperatures of minus two

for 45 minutes, but the emergency services were unable to reach them.

The Ambulance Service were really struggling to get to the patients.

The road vehicle clearly couldn't travel across the fields

and the train meant that the Air Ambulance

couldn't even make a landing.

Still unaware of the extent of their injuries

and with no prospect of rescue, they were beginning to panic.

The pain was so sharp, I've never felt anything so sharp before.

I couldn't breathe properly

for 45 minutes because I was so winded and I was really scared

cos when I struggled to breathe, that's when I was really shocked

because I'm scared that I'm going to die.

I was laying on the snow waiting for the ambulance team to get there

and I was shivering cos I was soaked through.

A rescue like this is going to be really difficult.

There's always a danger that

hypothermia might start to affect the patient.

It was now 9pm and the rest of the country was settling in

for another night of heavy snow.

The Met Office had issued severe weather warnings across the UK

and people had been warned not to go out unless absolutely necessary.

Back at Devil's Dyke,

the boys had been lying injured in the snow for over an hour.

The snow was still falling

and an icy wind coming over from Central Europe continued to blow.

We had friends there comforting us,

speaking to us, checking if we're OK. They were just next to us,

talking to us, trying to get our minds off

what's happened and you know, the shock of it all, but, yeah, no,

I knew help was on the way, but I knew it would take time.

With the helicopter finding it impossible to land,

emergency services needed to find a solution urgently.

Luckily, volunteers from St John Ambulance were on standby

with a specialist vehicle capable of battling through the snow.

The vehicle used in the rescue operation was this one behind me.

It's a vehicle that was designed especially for St John Ambulance

and especially because of its off-road capabilities,

its four-wheel drive and its off-road tyres.

At 9.30pm, the specialist vehicle raced to the scene,

but once near the South Downs, they needed help to locate the boys.

We used the vehicle to travel across several fields.

To do this, we had to communicate with the Air Ambulance.

They had their searchlight to shed light on the route

so that the vehicle could travel safely across the fields.

I was beginning to think,

"Are they ever going to get here in time?"

Two hours after the accident,

the St John's Ambulance finally arrived at the scene.

When our volunteers arrived on the scene,

they were able to quickly identify a suspected pelvic injury.

That was a real cause for concern.

Pelvic injuries often cause significant internal damage,

internal bleeding and can actually be life-threatening conditions

so moving the patient quickly and safely to hospital

was a top priority.

Vince couldn't get up at all

so they had to pick him up, put him in a wheelchair kind of thing

and then put him in. Then they picked me up and Dan

and then we managed to get in, and then they drove us down

to the bottom of the valley where the other three ambulances were.

Three separate ambulances battled through the snow to get the boys to

Royal Sussex County Hospital, just six miles away from Devil's Dyke.

They said I fractured my shoulder and I was stuck in the hospital

for five hours because the waiting was terrible.

I broke my arm, I lacerated my kidney, and because

I lacerated my kidney, it led to internal bleeding.

On top of these injuries,

Vince also suffered from hypothermia and was in hospital for two weeks.

Their friend Dan suffered from a fractured pelvis.

The boys weren't the only ones caught out by the snow.

Throughout the UK, there were hundreds of casualties,

but there are some precautions you can take

to limit the dangers of heavy snow.

The snow we saw in February was as bad as we've seen for many years

and bad weather like that has inherent dangers.

People need to think carefully about whether they really need to travel,

about the activities that they're doing in the snow

and they need to think about people around them that might

need some extra help, such as the housebound or the elderly.

It's now six months on and are the boys more aware

of the dangers of such extreme weather?

Obviously, we'll take more precautions next time,

but we had fun, it's all about having fun with your friends.

This hasn't affected me much, I'm not scared to sledge again,

I'll do it again, but we just assumed that was perfectly smooth

so from now on I want to check what's on the hill

and make sure it's safe to sledge on.

These thrill-seeking boys obviously like living life on the edge,

but let's hope next time they'll think twice before trifling with

the effects of extreme weather.

Back to Hawnby in North Yorkshire where, in June 2005,

dramatic thunderstorms caused flash floods to engulf the area.

Ray Yoward and his late wife, Mary, were caught up in the worst of it

as five foot of floodwater immersed their home and boarding kennels.

But the day after the floods, the water levels had dropped

and it was heartbreaking for Ray to see what was left

of his once thriving business and home.

There was nothing to see but mud and devastation.

Possessions were in the hedges, they were up in the trees

and it was just like a wasteland.

All my fences were flattened,

the pen was down on the floor,

the sheds had gone, taken with the water,

furniture, pictures on the walls.

Every possession, clothes in wardrobes,

everything just gone, just filthy...

..and it was just a disaster.

It wasn't just Ray's kennels business that lay in tatters.

The flash floods that hit the North Yorkshire Moors

are estimated to have cost tens of millions of pounds in damages.

32 houses were wrecked

and numerous cars swept away by gushing floodwaters.

Nine people were rescued after climbing trees and roofs

to escape the rising water and a further nine people

reported missing overnight were found safe and sound.

The damage to Ray's kennels was irreparable

and because of their proximity to the River Rye,

Ray was forced to relocate his home and business further up the hill

so something like this could never happen again.

-Look at the drop.

-Yeah!

How far down the hill it actually is.

Four years after the nightmare floods,

Ray's taking me down the hill and back to his original house

and kennels by the river where it all happened.

So this was your home?

Yes, it was. This is where... You're looking at this side here,

there was the office and so forth and there were sheds down this side.

And tell me, how far did the...? Now, when you first came out,

-it was just sort of ankle deep, wasn't it?

-Yes.

-But how far up did it come?

-It was about there.

-Really!

Yes. In fact, in some places you can still see the watermark,

but it was up to there,

so it was coming straight in through the windows, through the doors.

It didn't break the windows, then?

It did break some of the windows. I'll show you the broken windows.

The interior of the house was also ravaged in the flash floods.

The force of the water running through the rooms ruined

personal possessions and left walls and furniture covered in mud.

Within minutes, years of happy memories were destroyed,

memories of Ray's wife, Mary,

who sadly died six months after the traumatic events.

So you must have mixed emotions sometimes?

I mean, standing here now talking about it,

looking at the exact spot where the kennels were,

-is that right, mixed emotions?

-Yeah, there are mixed emotions.

The basic emotion that I have is that my wife's gone,

it's as simple as that.

It doesn't mean nearly as much to me with having no-one to share it with.

Yep. Oh!

It's been a terribly sad time for Ray,

but he's rebuilt his boarding kennels in memory of Mary,

whose dream it was to care for animals she loved so much.

What's different about these kennels?

Well, for a start they're 50 foot above the river.

-OK.

-So we aren't going to get flooded.

They've been built with a French drain all the way round them

so that the water, any water running off the hillside goes into the drain,

round the kennels and down the hill into the river,

so we aren't going to get any water in the kennels.

They're all nicely insulated, they're all double the size

they were down below so there's room if someone's got maybe three dogs,

they've got kennels that are big enough to put three dogs in.

Ha-ha! Who's this? He's gorgeous!

-That's Jake.

-Is he a poodle?

No, he's not a poodle, he's an Irish Water Spaniel,

and he was just clipped before he came in. He's a regular, yes.

So what's it like now coming into these kennels?

You must feel an enormous sense of achievement?

-Oh, yes!

-Because they were wrecked, weren't they?

They were absolutely wrecked.

So if you were to have a similar downpour as you did back in 2005?

It would just run off,

it would just run off and there'd be no problem whatsoever.

I mean, we've had several heavy storms since

and there's been no effect whatsoever.

The water just runs down the hill into the river.

You look very happy about that, don't you?

He's lovely, aren't you? You're a beautiful boy, yes!

The vicious thunderstorm and flash floods that hit

the North Yorkshire Moors is something Ray will never forget,

but with his kennels on higher ground now,

at least he'll be out of the danger zone

should Britain's extreme weather strike here again.

Good boy! That's very good.

Thankfully, these people survived the effects of extreme weather.

Join us next time for more amazing stories on Living Dangerously.

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