Joint military assistance in Cumbria ceases
23 Nov 09
The military assistance to the Cumbrian emergency services dealing with the severe floods in the area this weekend ended at 0900hrs today, Monday 23 November 2009.
An RAF Sea King was used to rescue residents in Cockermouth
[Picture: BBC News]
The military assistance to the civilian authorities was co-ordinated by 42 (North West) Brigade and involved soldiers manning cordons, Royal Engineer teams assessing bridge damage and RAF Search and Rescue and Mountain Rescue Teams deploying helicopters to move people safely from the floods.
Over the worst periods of the floods, the three RAF Sea King crews deployed rescued a total of 67 people.
The crew of Rescue 122 from C Flight, 22 Squadron, RAF Valley, rescued 27 people over a marathon 11.5-hour duration search and rescue operation.
On this crew's final tasking of the day in the early hours of Friday 20 November, C Flight were sent to investigate reports of an elderly lady trapped by rising floodwaters on the upper floor of her block of flats.
She was spotted attracting the attention of the helicopter by waving a dishcloth from her partially-opened window.
Sergeant Keith 'Bestie' Best, the winchman, was lowered to investigate further. Upon drawing level with the window, it immediately became apparent that the building was in imminent danger of collapse as the fast-flowing water and debris carried therein was washing away the structure's foundations.
"Throughout the weekend we continued to provide that support in the police headquarters, and also, on the Saturday, deployed more personnel into Cockermouth, again at the request of the police, to assist with ensuring a safe environment."
Major Harry Clark
Sgt Best tried to open the window to gain access to the flat after seeing a total of four elderly people taking refuge in the upper-floor room, but the window would not yield.
With time now becoming critical, Sergeant Best took the gutsy decision to force the window, but, hanging from the winch-wire, he had insufficient purchase to force the window open. He therefore resorted to the only remaining alternative and punched his way through the double-glazed window.
Sweeping the broken fragments of glass aside, he managed to enter the room, reassure the occupants and, after clearing out the remnants of the glass, they were winched to safety into the Sea King hovering above.
Sgt Best sustained minor cuts and bruises to his right hand, but was unfazed by this and went on to care for those he had rescued before delivering them to safety.
The military assistance to the civilian authorities in Cumbria is summarised as:
• 42 (North West) Brigade Ops Room at Fulwood Barracks in Preston was manned 24-hours-a-day from Thursday afternoon to Monday morning
• Military liaison officers were stationed at GOLD Command in Penrith throughout
Major Geoff Green keeps an eye on the flood relief effort from the Headquarters 42 Brigade Operations Room
[Picture: Kevin Hegarty, Crown Copyright/MOD 2009]
• RAF Search and Rescue helicopters and RAF Mountain Rescue Teams deployed, to move people to safety from the floods
• RAF personnel and vehicles from RAF Spadeadam deployed to assist the police in searching properties at risk from the flood waters
• Specialist Royal Engineer reconnaissance teams deployed alongside civilian engineers to assess damage to bridges
• Lynx helicopter deployed to assist with police reconnaissance
• Soldiers from Newcastle-based 39 Regiment Royal Artillery deployed from a forward operating base at Carlisle Castle to man cordons near bridges.
The military assistance ended this morning but units are on standby to assist further if required and requested.
Major Harry Clark, the Chief of Staff of 42 (North West) Brigade who led the brigade effort to co-ordinate the military assistance to the civilian authorities, described the role of the military in more detail:
"The action started on Thursday last week. As the rains started to fall in Cumbria the civilian agencies started to realise that the problem was significant. We deployed a liaison officer to the police headquarters in Penrith - this was on Thursday afternoon; he then became embedded in the police headquarters throughout the entire operation.
"Formal military support has ended although we continue to liaise with the police commanders and other civilian agencies in case they need our help."
Major Harry Clark
"As the situation started to deteriorate in Cockermouth and Workington we were then able to use that liaison officer to set up a command and control station in the police headquarters from which we co-ordinated the search and rescue effort using three search and rescue helicopters from the RAF.
"So as a result, in that police headquarters we had quite a lot of embedded RAF personnel assisting with the effort. We also set up our brigade headquarters back here in Preston, which assisted in our liaison with higher formation within the Army.
"Throughout Friday we then deployed some personnel on the ground at the request of the police commander - those personnel came from RAF Spadeadam and they were deployed on the ground to Cockermouth to assist the police commander on the ground with searching Cockermouth and ensuring a safe environment in the aftermath of the floods.
"Throughout the weekend we continued to provide that support in the police headquarters, and also, on the Saturday, deployed more personnel into Cockermouth, again at the request of the police, to assist with ensuring a safe environment.
"We have had specialist engineer reconnaissance looking at the bridge - the Carver bridge in Workington - and trying to see whether a military solution could be possible there.
Left to right: Major David Marshall, Major Geoff Green and Warrant Officer Class 1 Len Willoughby help to co-ordinate the military flood relief operation from the Headquarters 42 Brigade Operations Room
[Picture: Kevin Hegarty, Crown Copyright/MOD 2009]
"It now appears that that is not the most appropriate level of support. We have had a Lynx helicopter assisting the police commander with reconnaissance.
"Looking forward then to Sunday, there was a request with the police - again back in Cockermouth - to assist with ensuring a safe environment in Cockermouth with regards to the re-entry of civilians, bearing in mind the power was out and there were a lot of hazards which the flooding has caused, so after dark it became an extremely dangerous environment.
"We did that with some soldiers from 39 Regiment Royal Artillery who had come from Newcastle via a forward operating base in Carlisle Castle, and they deployed overnight on Sunday night.
"As at 0900 on Monday morning, with the civilian agencies moving into what they call the recovery or stabilisation phase, formal military support has ended although we continue to liaise with the police commanders and other civilian agencies in case they need our help."