Skipton'S Morrisons supermarket was one inch away from disaster as the floodwaters rose on Broughton Road.

The car park became a huge lake, while the loading bay yard was under five foot of water.

Deputy manager Andrew Capstick said the water was very close to engulfing the store's electrics box.

"That would've spelt disaster for us as it would've meant turning everything off and losing thousands of pounds of stock," he said. "Luckily the water started to subside just before it came right up to the store's entrance."

Mr Capstick added that an electrician was forced to sail out in a plastic bathtub to check the electrics.

Nearby Great Mills DIY store suffered the brunt of the flooding, with water seeping in to the majority of the store's floor space, and submerging the electricity sub-station.

Manager Paul Elkins told the Herald: "It's just been one big mopping up job and we're going to have to replace all the store's carpeted areas, which last time we had a flood came to £16,000."

Meanwhile, a full-scale operation to safeguard medical records was taking place at the Fisher Medical Centre off Coach Street car park.

A team of doctors and staff worked around the clock to stop a torrent of water washing over the side of the canal, which is right next to the centre.

Mick Brighton, IT specialist at the centre said: "The centre car park was filling up with water spilling over the canal bridge, so we sand bagged the bridge and just kept our fingers crossed and waited. At its worst the water was a foot high over the sandbags on the bridge."

Practice manager Jenny Hutchinson said: "I live in Grassington and had already gone home from work when my son rang up at around 6.45pm and said the water was rising to the top of the canal wall. I rang down to the caretaker to see how things were and he said the water was near the top and asked if we could get some sandbags."

She added: "What I was really worried about at the time was the door at the side of the centre because that led to a room where all the telephones, computers and electrics are. I knew if water went in there, we would have had it as it would have wiped off all the patient records."

Dr David Pearson, chairman of the practice, neighbours and four of the practice's doctors who live in Skipton all worked together to start clearing the drains from debris. They were grateful to Merritt & Fryers for providing sandbags.

Detective Constable Andy Deville swapped his car for a dinghy after receiving reports of a man sitting on his car roof in floodwater near Carleton on Monday night.

He and Ian Clarke, of Pennine Marine Services, launched the dinghy near Waltonwrays Crematorium, and headed towards the Lothersdale road.

"We sailed over one car that was totally submerged. We didn't even know it was there - all that was visible was three inches of its aerial. We then came across another car that was three-quarters submerged. It was about 150 metres from the edge of the water, and the occupant had obviously swum to safety.

"Unbelievably, as we were rowing down the road, people were driving past us. I have seen other floods in that area before, but I have never seen the water as high as that. The flood bank had totally disappeared."