THE big clean-up was under way last night after up to 100 homes were devastated by floods gushing from a burst water main.

At least seven families were offered alternative accommodation after Knowsley council officers visited homes in Huyton to assess residents’ needs.

Three schools in Knowsley and two in Liverpool were closed after water supplies were cut off, but they were expected to re-open as normal today.

Around 25,000 households were also affected as engineers worked through the day to restore supplies.

As residents tried to clean up their homes, loss adjustors visited properties in Page Moss Avenue and Huyton House Road, where the water mains burst at around 8am.

A drop-in centre manned by United Utilities and Knowsley council staff was opened at the Gate Community Centre, in Princess Drive, for people affected by the water.

The flood started after a digger punctured a 44-inch line on the corner of the two roads, causing a huge burst and throwing rubble all over the road.

It was the third burst in the area in just 18 months.

United Utilities, Huyton firefighters and council officers were all sent to the area as dirty water gushed into people’s homes.

A heavily pregnant woman was rescued from her home in an inflatable raft by firefighters as water flooded her property.

Emma Cunningham, 23, who is due to give birth to a boy in a week, was forced to lean out of an upstairs window as the flood waters engulfed her house.

She said: “The water level was so high inside the house it cut the phone off so I had to wave for help.

“I did not want to touch the water because it could be contaminated and I have got to think about the baby.”

Her two-year-old daughter was lifted out by fire crews while Mrs Cunningham was helped into a life raft and ferried to safety.

She said: “It was embarrassing but it was also devastating. We have been doing up the baby’s room but now cannot go back to the house.”

Mrs Cunningham and her husband Anthony, 37, face the prospect of moving in with her parents in Wavertree or staying in hotels in the run-up to the birth.