Water is pumped out of a drain and then piped across Tower Street to be pumped over a wall into Tower Gardens PUMPS, pipes and sandbags were used today to keep two key York roads open and free from flooding after the River Ouse rose to its highest level in six years. Tower Street, below Clifford s Tower, and the A19 at Fulford have both been blocked by flooding from the Ouse at times in the past. But City of York Council managed to keep both routes open this time round. It sealed off the entrance to Tower Gardens with giant sandbags and then pumped remaining floodwaters back over the wall and into the gardens, including pumping out a drain on the Tower side, with a pipe laid across the road to take the water to the wall.