Saturday 9th February 2002 |
RESCUE BOAT IN ACTION |
| Rescuers launch
for the first time A NEW rescue unit at Upton-upon-Severn has been in action
tackling the first floods suffered since it was formed. Severn Area Rescue (SARA) unit members have plucked a woman from floodwater at Kempsey, taken stranded residents in Upton shopping by boat and towed numerous cars out of floods. SARA volunteers also distributed sandbags and responded to calls wherever they were needed. "A core crew of a dozen was flying around Upton for about 48 hours at the height of the flood on Saturday, Sunday and Monday," said unit leader Dave Walker. "We had an initial battle to get enough sandbags but, with the help of town clerk Priscilla Beattie, we had about 300 by Sunday afternoon." SARA's most dramatic rescue came on Monday, when a woman was stranded behind Kempsey Parish Church. "She'd slipped off the bank into the water and was hanging on to a tree," said Mr Walker. "We had to launch a boat to get to her and she was taken to hospital with a bit of hypothermia." In Upton's New Street, residents in modern houses built above the flood level stayed dry but could not move out without the help of the boat. Mr Walker said the most distressing aspect was the selfishness of motorists who insisted on driving through closed roads, creating bow waves that washed into houses. |
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