'You don't want goldfish walking around in your house do you?'

Homes in Greater Manchester have flooded as Storm Bert caused the River Irwell to burst its banks in some parts of the region.

A flood warning was issued north of Ramsbottom at around midday on Saturday (November 23) with residents urged to 'act now' as the river level rose above 2 metres. The river was forecast to rise above record levels set on Boxing Day in 2015 when it reached 2.78m.

The River Irwell peaked at 2.33 metres near Stubbins at 4.15pm but the level has since fallen. However, a flood warning is still in place in the Strongstry and Chatterton areas while flood alerts have been issued further down street along the river including in Ramsbottom.

READ MORE:Storm Bert - All the events cancelled in and around Greater Manchester

Several residential properties have flooded in Kenyon Street where a waste and recycling business is located. Steve Marsh, who lives on the road, near where it meets Peel Brow, said that the bottom floor of his home started flooding at around 1pm, reaching 2 inches.

Steve spent £90,000 on flood defences for his property following the Boxing Day floods in 2015 when his home first flooded and the water level in his basement reached 49 inches. He said: "Other than that, it never used to do it. It's just a pain in the arse, isn't it?"

The house now has has wateproof floorboards and stone walls as well as waterproof cement, meaning the property more 'sealed' than most. However, water still managed to get in, requiring an underfloor water pump to kick into gear, ejecting 600 litres a minute.

Unfortunately, Steve's neighbours aren't so lucky. He said: "Everyone of them will be flooded. They'll have gone upstairs."

"We do have a lot of cleaning up to do. That's moving everything. In the past, it usually would take two or three days.

It all depends if there's sewage in it because normally the sewage backs up. But because the river's so high, it came up straight and the downfall was so hard. It's looking pretty clear. It's just river water. But you don't want goldfish walking around in your house do you?

He added: "I have a man cave. I think my man cave has come to an end. I keep myself busy building helicopters.

"Some of it's got damaged because we were moving it upstairs in a panic because you don't know how deep it is."

Speaking to the Manchester Evening News shortly before 5pm, Ramsbottom councillor Gareth Staples-Jones said Bury council had deployed three emergency vehicles and mobilised on-call staff to help tackle the floods. He said: "Fortunately there aren't a huge amount of houses near the town centre where it's actually bursting the banks. But there are other hotspots. Near Park Farm always floods from the run off, and a few other areas like that. At the moment it's not too bad in terms of residential threats, it's businesses."