A family who was evacuated from their house in Catcliffe due to flooding will be out of their home for their baby’s first Christmas.
Despite the house being unlivable, the family still have to pay bills for their flooded house and the property they’re renting at the moment.
Szymon Olzycki, father of the 7-month-old baby, said: “At the moment we’re just trying to live normally, we definitely want to go back there but it’s not going to be until April until we can move back in.
“You never know if it could flood again, every time it rains it’s on our mind”.
On 21 October 2023, Szymon Olzycki and his girlfriend Ewelina woke up at six o’clock in the morning to water creeping up their drive.
Three hours later, their living room was flooded with over one metre of water.
The couple moved into the house in June this year with their son, Leon.
Mr Olzycki said: “The baby’s alright, they don’t understand the trauma happening around them yet.
“It was terrible to go downstairs and see everything underwater. It happened so quickly, we had to move all the baby stuff we could out of the house.”
So far the Olzycki family have received a £500 grant from the council and their council tax frozen for six months.
They are yet to receive another £500 from a government grant.
Rotherham council announced last week that nearly £170,000 of grants have been given to households which were flooded.
Cllr Chris Read, said: “I saw with my own eyes the devastation caused by Storm Babet, with homes in Catcliffe particularly hard hit. This funding we hope will provide immediate financial relief to those impacted by hardship that has been caused by flooding.
“Over the last three weeks since the storm hit, causing damage to around 180 homes, we have had a fifth of our workforce out in the worst hit areas supporting our residents in the aftermath.
“We have been there supporting our residents through this crisis from the early hours of October 21st and we will continue to support them in the coming weeks and months.”
Edited by Toria Christie