East Yorkshire Floods - 25th/26th June 2007
We were contacted by the North Yorkshire Police (Inspector John Denham,
Silver control at Harrogate) at 09.50 and requested to send a team to Harrogate
to assist with the floods. We were asked to attend a silver control meeting at
11.30 in Harrogate. I set off at 10.10 driven by Will Smith but we had severe
difficulty getting out of Beverley due to the flooding. Every Road we tried was
under water.
10.30
It became apparent that we would not be able to get to North Yorkshire. We had
also been advised by the Coast guard that there did not seem to be any serious
issue within North Yorkshire at the present time. So with that in mind we
offered our services to Humberside Police. The offer was accepted and a request
was made for as many boats as possible. I spoke to Willie and
mobilised the Scottish boat with a request for
a team from Scotland.
While on route to Hull the following people were mobilised:
John Wilkinson
Ian Wains
Tony Dawson
Willie McMartin
John Anderson
Alistair Brown
Jimmy Livingstone
The RV point was Priory Road Police station. This changed to Hessle Road Police
HQ as Priory Road had flooded and was now being evacuated.
12.00
It took us an hour and a half to find a way through to Hull. We again hit water
at Chantlands Avenue. We stopped to ask a police officer which roads were open
and how we could get to Police HQ. She was in the process of calling for
assistance for a woman who had tried to swim in the flood water but and got into
difficulty and was now trapped. I was advised that the water was about 11 to 12
foot deep. I explained who I was and that I had a dry suit and rescue equipment
in the car and after a quick assessment advised her that I was able to retrieve
the casualty. My offer was accepted and the casualty was retrieved with the
assistance of a police officer who got to her first from the other side of the
flood water. After making sure that both she and the
police officer were safely out of the water I returned to the vehicle.
Once this was done the police officer arranged for a police escort to take us
to Police HQ.
13.45
Finally arrived at Hessle Rd Police Stn and reported to Inspector Berrage. He
advised me to wait in the canteen for deployment. The rest of the team started
to arrive (Ian Wains with the van and equipment and Tony Dawson.) John Wilkinson
was also on Route as was Dave Weller. Will Smith who had driven me into Hull was
going to return to Beverley but was advised by the police that the town was now
cut off and he would not get back in. We were leaving all our vehicles at the
station and using the Rescue Unit as transport for the team so Will decided to
stay with us.
15.45
We were deployed to assist with the rescue of elderly persons trapped by flood
water at East Halton, near Grimsby. This was about an Hours drive away but we
managed it in 45 minutes with the aid of a police escort.
16.30
Arrived on scene. There were 13 people living in elderly persons accommodation
that were (at its deepest) waist deep. We used the small boat and carried the
residents to the boat the pulled them to a police vehicle that was driven into
the water. They were then transferred to the police vehicle.
We eventually rescued 13 people and 8 dogs from the street. As we were
leaving we were asked to assist a young girl who had been playing in the water
with some friends when we arrived. She was advised by myself to stay out of the
water but, as kids do, took no notice. She was now very cold and could hardly
move. Tony and Ian Suited up and retrieved her from the water where she was
handed over to a local council official. They also managed to get some dry
cloths for her. We contacted Silver control and advised them that we were now
clear and they requested us to go to Grimsby police station and standby.
19.05
Arrived at Grimsby Police Station where we were shown to a canteen and ask to
standby. I requested an up date from Willie re their
ETA and was surprised to hear how close they were. Apparently they were also
travelling with an escort which had been with them from Carlisle and was
bringing them to Hull.
20.30
Willie and the team arrived from Scotland. Dave Weller had been unable to reach
us due to flood water and John who had been stuck in Leaconfield for almost 4
hours was now on the road again and heading towards Grimsby.
The full team was now as follows:
Ray Gray Team Leader
Willie McMartin Deputy Team Leader
Ian Wains
Tony Dawson
John Wilkinson
Ann Marie Macdonald
Jimmy Livingston
We were also to be joined by John Anderson
and Alistair Brown, both of whom were on
route.
20.50
Willie's team (Annie and Jimmy) were deployed to Isaac
Newton House in Hull to assist with the rescue of elderly people trapped by the
flood water.
21.10
We were told to deploy back to Hull. We contacted John Wilkinson who was just
outside Grimsby and advised him of our deployment.
He joined us on route.
21.50
We arrived back in Hull and were deployed to the same location as Willie. On
arrival at Isaac Newton House the evacuation was almost complete. Had a brief
discussion with our colleagues from Humber rescue who were also helping with the
evacuation. We were given a number of addresses of vulnerable people in the
adjoining streets, Arcon Drive, that need to be rescued. We evacuated 14 people
mostly elderly with the odd exception and again the water was about waist deep.
John Anderson and Alistair Brown arrived as we were finishing this deployment
which now meant the team was complete.
26th June 2007
00.05
Finished at Arcon Drive and told by silver control to go to Calvert lane Fire
station and standby. Willie's team had been deployed
to another job.
00.30
Arrived at the fire station and waited for willies team to join us. The ground
floor and garage of the fire station were under about a foot of water.
01.10
We were deployed to Worcester drive to rescue two elderly residents trapped by
flood water. This set the pattern that was to run
right through the night and into the following day with teams being deployed to
the following locations:
Yorkshire Road
Prior Road
Warwickshire close
Kirkwood close (30 people to be rescued)
07.40
We were deployed to the village of Withernwick in East Riding were two families
had been cut off by flood water. This was about a 30 minute
blue-light drive. We successfully rescued one couple plus 4 dogs. The
other was happy to stay as although the road was cut off her home was not
flooded. She did request some fresh water for drinking. We gave her what we had
on the vehicle and some of the villagers that were not affected by the flood in
the also provided her with plenty of water. We finished at 09.30 and,
following some food and drink very kindly provided by the villagers,
we returned to the fire station.
11.30
Back to the by now normal routine of rescuing residents trapped by the flood
water at the following places:
Sorral Drive
Hotham Road
Worcester Road
Coronation Road
Ilford Road
Ampleforth Road
Moorhouse Road (70 people to be rescued)
Lindsey Place
All of those evacuated were taken to the City Hall, some
time by us but other times aboard a double-decker bus;
in Hull were they were booked in and given hot drinks and food until a place
could be found for them. A lot of them were settling in for a long stay.
16 .00
Our last call was back to Arcon Drive to pick up a vulnerable resident and take
them to the reception centre. It was noticeable that
some of the water levels had dropped substantially particularly in and around
the fire station which was now no longer flooded.
16.30
Following a telephone call from both the fire service and police silver controls
we were thanked for our help and after a 30hrs 30 minute unbroken shift we were
formally stood down.
During the early hours of the morning the stores van had been driven into
some flood water that was deeper than it looked and the van had broken down (the
water was coming over the bonnet). We pushed the vehicle out of the water and
John Wilkinson towed us back to the fire station. When we had finished we
cleaned out the vehicle and removed what equipment we could. Ian made
arrangements for the vehicle to be taken back to the store.
He stayed at the station with the vehicle while the rest of the team came
back with me for some food and sleep. All of the
team members were fit and well but just a little tired.
We did get requests from other team members
offering assistance which we were very grateful for. We did consider a second
replacement team but at that time it had become obvious that there would not be
much more work to do as the water levels were dropping. We really needed more
people early on but at the time it would not have been possible to get into
Hull.
During the deployment the team had rescued 136 people and 12 animals
My thanks as usual go to all members of the team both on site and in the
office.
I also need to pass on my own thanks and that of the team to Will smith who
stayed with us for the full 30 hours assisting where he could and was a great
help on many occasions throughout the deployment.
Ray Gray
Team Leader
