SIX families had to throw out carpets and furniture worth thousands of pounds yesterday after flash floods caused devastation in their homes.

Most had to move to emergency accommodation after water and sewage more than a foot deep swept through houses in Butterknowle, near Barnard Castle, County Durham.

They could only watch helplessly as Howle Beck burst its banks and gushed up through floors and walls into a terrace of stone-built properties at The Slack, on the outskirts of the village.

Ambulance driver Chris Mills and wife, Shirley, had to put all their downstairs belongings into refuse skips after it was contaminated by sewage.

An insurance company paid for the couple to move to a bed and breakfast.

Mr Mills said: "Everything in the lower part of our house has been destroyed.

"Plaster will have to be chipped off the walls and redone, and every single item will have to be replaced.

"I put sandbags outside the doors when the beck started rising suddenly.

"But the water and sludge came pouring in through the floor and walls. There was nothing we could do."

The families were advised by health officers that everything that had come into contact with sewage would have to be disposed of.

Andrew Lowther and partner, Ann, who also lost most of their furniture, were moved by Teesdale District Council into a nearby empty bungalow.

Margaret Hunt, 65, and her daughter, Karen, were also moved to a spare bungalow by the council.

Mrs Hunt said: "I heard the water rising in the middle of the night, but before I could do anything it was gushing round all my rooms."

Terry Makepeace and his wife, Anne, were on a Mediterranean cruise when relatives contacted them to say their home was flooded. The couple went ashore in Majorca and were flying home yesterday to assess the damage. Other victims moved in with relatives.

All the families suffered some flood damage four years ago, but said the latest was the worst they had experienced. The fire brigade pumped the flood water away, and the beck level dropped. But with rain still falling yesterday local people feared another flood.