Floods turn UK streets into rivers

Like a modern-day King Canute, Sam Notaro is determined not to let rising waters flood his home.

 He lives in Moorland village in Somerset, southwest England, which has been hit hard by weeks of flooding.

Streets have turned into rivers, cars are submerged up to their windshields, and homes have been abandoned.

But Notaro is a lone holdout.

He’s created his own flood defense barrier, using a digger to raise a soil embankment topped with heavy clay to act as a seal.

So far, it has kept the worst of the waters out of his home, with the help of pumps — but the question is how long it will hold.

“Like I say, if it rises a meter, I don’t know if it will be enough. I don’t know,” he said.

He may be the only one left, but he’s not without help in his struggle against the elements.

Marines — part of a hundreds-strong military deployment by the UK government — waded through the waist-high water Tuesday to help bolster his makeshift flood defenses.

Notaro appeared stubbornly resolved to continue his battle despite the losing odds. “We were backed into a corner. It was low so we pushed some soil up, and then you’ve got to keep going, haven’t you?” he said.

King Canute, an 11th-century ruler of England, Denmark, Norway and part of Sweden, by legend went to the seashore and tried to hold back the rising tide — but failed.

In the low-lying Somerset Levels, where some homes have been underwater for weeks, many will know his sense of powerlessness.