WITH the last pieces of debris cleared from a flood-hit community, residents are now celebrating a rush of babies.

Four-day-old Robert Dunn and three-month-old Dean Wallace have no idea of the chaos that hit their parents' homes nine months ago.

When the River Gaunless broke its banks and inundated South Church, near Bishop Auckland, County Durham, residents were forced from their homes and spent the next few months living in caravans.

Dawn Dunn and her husband, Paul, had only been in their house six months when the floods hit and their new carpets and furniture were ruined.

Dawn became pregnant two months after moving into her caravan and found her temporary accommodation far from ideal.

She said: "They had to change the caravan because the smell just made me ill, and exaggerated the symptoms of morning sickness.

"It was very cramped. We didn't think we would be back home by the time Robert was born."

Happily, she is back in her newly-decorated home at Hillbeck, South Church, with her son, who arrived on Mother's Day.

The village's other "flood baby", Dean, arrived in similar circumstances.

His mother Deborah lost everything in the deluge, last June, and five months into the pregnancy she was taken into hospital with rheumatoid arthritis, exacerbated by living in a damp caravan.

Deborah had only been back in her home at Appleby Street a fortnight before she had to leave again, this time to Bishop Auckland Hospital's labour ward.

She said: "The house was in order just in time for Dean's arrival. He came a fortnight early and I didn't even have a chance to get used to my house before he arrived."