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January 05HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!! - Welcome to the January edition of our press newsletter from IRC. This year already IRC have been in demand and yet again our Boxing Day was disturbed by another disaster. IRC rallied into action and below is an explanation of IRC’s response to the disaster. At the start of the new year, IRC also deployed a small team to Carlisle to assist in rescuing people trapped in the floods. This has started off our 2005 with a bang. In this edition:- IRC and the Asia tsunami earthquake. IRC and the Asia tsunami earthquake6am Boxing Day morning I received a phone call. “No,” I cried, “you are joking!” - “Not again,” cried my husband! There had been a large earthquake out at sea off the coast of Indonesia and it had caused a tsunami, I was told. IRC were very quick to respond putting an offer of assistance in via the UN and Department for International Development (DFID). A team of 18 were contacted and put on standby. This disaster, as you all well know, unfolded before our eyes and the true scale of it emerged pretty quickly. We sat there like everyone in the world, watching at the images emerging, and our hearts and heads ached and longed for jumping on the next flight out there to help! However the signs were not good and, following hundreds of phone calls, emails and faxes the team had to be stood down – the message emphatically stated that no rescue teams were needed - only humanitarian aid (in particular money!). Over the years it has been IRC’s policy not to just turn up to an affected area as we would only be a burden on an already over stretched country. Therefore without any invites from any of the countries we made the frustrating decision to not go. This hit the pits of our stomachs and we decided that our only option would be to help in the UK instead and assist in getting aid donated to the corps on flights and out to the affected areas. During the first week of the disaster lots of questions were posed to the corps. Our Corps Director answered below:-
We were told that the airfields which the planes landed in are still many miles away, up to days by train in some cases, from the disaster areas. Without an invite no onward transport would have been provided and 18 people and 4 tons of equipment would’ve ended up being stranded. The team would have been there for probably days and would have been of use to anyone.
In most cases the flood water all but returned to its normal level in a very short period of time. Even at the time of the flood, the sheer ferocity of the water meant that our boats would not have survived.
At this time, most countries are asking for help by way of personnel NOT TO BE SENT. Goods and people are still building up at the airports and causing tremendous problems. Also, the number of flights trying to land far exceeded the safe capacity of the air traffic control system. At the time of writing, the air traffic controllers were warning that holding patterns were very long and that all planes must refuel before entering the holding air space!
The Operational Committee, helped by Lord Selkirk (our president), have been in constant touch with DFID, UN OCHA, Red Cross, Rotary and many others. Many hours have been spent trying to help aid shipments by bringing together donors and those in need. VIRGIN was able to offer some flights on the scheduled routes that they fly. Attempts were made to try and get links from these hubs into the disaster areas and a flight chartered by Oxfam flew out to Sri Lanka the following Sunday (a week later). We have looked at all the options available, or at least that we can find, to try and give help. Things may change but at this point in time we will not be helping in person but only as a clearing house to assist others pass on help. Editors’ comment Following the Iran earthquake, IRC was accused of being ‘glory seeking baboons’ as we were leaving the disaster area after 5 days! This hurt - for over 20 years IRC have flown all over the world at the drop of a hat with the aim of saving lives. Recent media developments mean that IRC is thrown into the limelight almost immediately a disaster happens. As a charity (and without being able to get any lottery money) IRC must maintain their profile somehow. However IRC will continue to work with only one aim ‘united to save life’. The Carlisle floods and IRCOn Saturday 8th January, a nearby river broke its banks putting Carlisle under water – houses and businesses were flooded including both the Police and Fire Stations. The local police asked for IRC to attend with our boats. Three regions were rallied – Scotland, Northern and Eastern. 10 members made their way to the rally point (outside M&S) and immediately flew into action. Here is the experience of one member who attended:- Dave is a relatively new member to IRC. He is under training and has already achieved UK Support status. He received the nickname ‘stand down Dave’ as every time a mission came up and Dave was available the team were stood down! Carlisle was Dave’s first mission – he recounts his experiences and this time he wasn’t stood down!:- “Saturday 8th January - I was enjoying a relaxing day. Later in the day I was to join my British Red Cross colleagues at the local Tesco store to collect money for the Asian Tsunami Appeal. I received a telephone call from our regional coordinator at 13:00hrs. He informed me of a situation in Cumbria – intense flooding had left a large area of Carlisle under deep water and had wiped out an electrical sub-station. There had been one confirmed death related to the flood. He asked me if I was available to make up an IRC team. I said yes and was put on standby. I immediately organised my kit and cancelled my appointments for the next two days. The phone rang back 10 minutes later and I was told to mobilise straight away. I drove to IRC’s National Stores, north of York to meet up with other team members who were sorting out our kit. This was my first mission – I didn’t feel excited as I previously thought I would have! This was for real – The only feeling I had was one of compassion for the people who needed our help. I felt strangely calm as the situation was being described to me about the sort of things I could expect when we arrived in Carlisle and how the team would possibly operate. I was happy to be finally putting my training into action. At the stores, we quickly packed the van and headed towards Carlisle. Strong winds had affected most of northern England – we passed many overturned lorries and debris from fallen trees. As we approached Cumbria our mobile phones kept losing their signals - communications were becoming difficult. An IRC boat team was en route from the Norfolk area, as was a team from Scottish region. We did hear that the Scots hit a snow storm around the Lockerbie area. As we drove into Carlisle we could see rescue helicopters operating in the area. We were tuned to BBC Radio Cumbria to try to get as much up to date information as possible. We drove into the city centre. It was very dark. Carlisle had suffered a major power cut – all street lights and traffic signals were out! We headed towards our rendezvous point in the city centre and made contact with the Police Command Centre at 17:00hrs. I contacted IRC headquarters to inform them of our arrival – I had to use a public telephone kiosk as our mobiles had no signal at all. We were asked by the police to wait for deployment, who then sent us to assist with the rescue efforts in Warwick Road. We quickly assembled our boat, donned dry suits and lifejackets, and awaited our first task. We joined the Scottish team members who were already there and then by the team from Eastern region who had travelled from Norfolk. At approximately 19:30hrs, with another member, I was asked to pilot the boat to an address where we would evacuate a woman and bring her to a place of safety. This was the moment I was looking forward to. There was no time to worry or to be apprehensive. I just remembered everything I’d been shown during training – I knew that if I could pilot a boat on the dangerous River Humber I could utilise those skills now! I set off and headed up the main street; it was approximately 5 feet deep with flood water. You could just see the tops of cars sticking out of the water. We had to look out at the front of the boat in order to navigate past cars, street bollards, telegraph posts and other dangers. The water was fairly choppy and fast flowing. The wind was quite strong and although we progressed at a steady speed it was a challenge to keep the boat in a straight line at times. We only had basic information of were we were heading to and it was difficult to ascertain exactly where we were at times. With no street lighting it was very dark. The sky was completely covered with clouds so we didn’t even have moonlight to help us. Many of the street signs were under water too. We headed onto a housing estate that we thought was the correct area. We followed a main street until we met dry land. It turned out that the address name we were given was the name of the estate NOT the street name. We then knew where to find the address. We found the house – the garden and drive was well under water with garden debris floating in the driveway. We found a woman named Edith who was fit and well. We explained to Edith that we would evacuate her to safety. We carried Edith to the boat and travelled back towards the launch site. Once on dry land I escorted Edith to the police. I later assisted an IRC team who had returned with a family – 2 adults, 1 child (who was poorly), and the family dog! I carried mum from the boat to dry land. I then helped to ready the boat for any further deployment. At approximately 8:30hrs, IRC was officially stood-down. We packed away the boats, said our goodbyes – We then travelled back to National stores to unload the kit, stopping en route to give a radio interview to BBC Radio Humberside!” Don’t forget - “Still for Sale” T-shirts = £8 Anyone interested in buying any of these please contact Julie Ryan –
press@intrescue.org. Don’t forget our new promotional video and new brochure A new 12 minute promotional video is now available to promote the work and ongoing dedication of IRC. Members are able to use this for talks and lectures. A new brochure has been printed also. This can be downloaded on the ‘download’ section of this web site. Anyone wishing a hard copy of the brochure or a copy of the video (available
in CDROM, DVD and VHS formats) please contact Julie Ryan –
press@intrescue.org • IRC and the Open College If anyone has any more news please feel free to send me your article for the next edition! Julie Ryan – National Press Officer |
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