Taxi firm chairman David Rhodes told Sky News said the flooding at his office was not yet as bad as it has been during heavy rains in 2000.
He said: "In the year 2000 we had four foot of water in the office, at the moment there’s eight or nine inches in the office.
"This time we’ve actually got flood defences in but they haven't worked.
"We have pumps going but it’s come in that fast this time, the pumps won't take it at the moment.
"It's 15 years since it’s been this high. We get it in every year but only up to the door and then it recedes. But this time I don’t know it’s happened so quick."
One man who lives in Navigation Road said there were about a dozen people stuck in each of four blocks of flats where water is "chest depth".
He said: "We are surrounded by water. It is really alarming.
"I ordered sandbags last night and I'm a bit shocked they still haven't arrived 16 hours later.
"Now we are at tipping point, it is too late."
The man, who lives on the third floor with his mother, said he hoped the army would be rescuing them soon.
Other people in York have praised the emergency services for their help in evacuating families.
Lisa Pallister, who turned up at an emergency centre at Archbishop Holgate's School with her four children still in their pyjamas, said rescue services had checked on them through the night.
The 36-year-old from the Huntington area of York said: "We didn't think it would reach us because we're raised off the ground and have three storeys but, by this morning, it was on the steps and it is going to rise by lunchtime.
"So we had a boat ride out.
"We're feeling all right. A bit tired, a bit shocked. We're lucky though, a lot of other residents were flooded last night early on.
"The children have coped really well, they've been really brave, we were rescued out of there and they were brave."
In the Acomb area of York residents of the Windsor House residential home were moved to other care homes after their basement was flooded.
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