One year on: The homeless

11:10am Saturday 19th July 2008

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Dangling 150 ft (47m) in the air from a helicopter is not usually advisable for pregnant women but for Vanya Atkins it was not an average day.

She was winched to safety from the bedroom of her home in Sedgeberrow, near Evesham, after up to 6ft (1.8m) of water poured into the ground floor trapping her and her family upstairs.

Mrs Atkins, who was nearly eight months pregnant, had a last glimpse of her 18-month-old son James sitting on the windowsill before she was whisked away to a Cheltenham hospital.

Just a few minutes before she had arrived home to discover her parents, who were staying with her, trying to hold water back with sandbags. Suddenly the river burst its banks.

She said: “It came in the house at quite a rate.

“I think it was five or six foot. We rescued a few photos and a video tape of my little boy, the stuff we couldn’t replace.”

The family raced upstairs but did not fully realise the danger they faced until the firefighters began arriving in boats.

She said: “They shouted we are going to get you out now because you are pregnant, climb up onto the window.

“I remember sitting on the window ledge thinking I was going to get into a boat. The next thing I knew I was winched out by a Sea King helicopter.

“I remember dangling there thinking, ‘I’ve just had a shower and I’m drenched and cold. What the hell am I doing?’”

Mrs Atkins, who was suffering from a heart murmur, was transferred to hospital when paramedics could not slow down her pulse.

She said: “At that point, I burst into tears.

“I was there not knowing where my husband was. I’d left my little boy on the window ledge with my parents.”

In the end, baby Emilia, now aged nine and half months, did not put in an appearance and Mrs Atkins was soon reunited with her family, but the ordeal did not end there.

Like many other families across Wychavon, they were unable to return home that weekend. However, unlike many others, the family are still living in a rented house and do not expect to return to their Winchcombe Road home until Christmas.

The house took until February to dry out and the ground floor is in the process of being rebuilt and renovated.

Solid brick walls have replaced what was once plaster board and concrete foundations have been put in to prevent water seeping under the floors.

Although looking forward to returning home, Mrs Atkins, aged 37, said she was concerned about the upheaval for James at his young age.

But she added: “When I look back I think we were really quite lucky. We are all safe and well. The house is being rebuilt, things can be replaced. It’s not too bad.”

• In pictures - June 2007 floods
• In pictures - July 2007 floods