The newsletter for British Red Cross volunteers and staff

in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset & the Channel Islands

Winter Storms Special With storms and flooding affecting much of the South West, in this issue we take a look at how our fantastic British Red Cross volunteers and staff have been helping local people in crisis.

Most communities across the Area have been touched in some way by

the recent series of storms. From wind and waves crashing over sea defences, to transport chaos, through to devastating floods, if you haven’t been directly affected you probably know someone who has and can’t have missed the unprecedented amount of media coverage.

From the end of the December 2013 our emergency response teams have responded brilliantly to a wide variety of emergencies across the counties

such as coastal damage in Cornwall, Dorset and Devon and of course Somerset, where we became a vital part of the multi-agency response to the lengthy and extensive inland flooding across approximately 50 square miles of the Somerset Levels.

Throughout the media attention and fast changing conditions one thing has been at the heart of our work - helping people in crisis. Our staff and volunteers have been a constant, committed team giving hours, days and weeks of time and energy to help

those in need. All this whilst keeping the day to day work of the Red Cross operating throughout.

One resident of Thorney in Somerset, Mrs Vera Budge, summed it up when volunteer Cheryl Murray, who she had only met a week before, knocked on her door to check how they were doing and said “Why are you knocking? You’re family”. Read on to hear more about the people we helped and lots more action from across the Area.

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Well, what a way to start the year. I won’t say anything specific about the floods and our responses as clearly the whole edition is dedicated to them, but obviously a massive thank you to everyone who got involved and especially those delivering the ‘back room’ duties - just as important but maybe not so visible.

Equally a big thank you to everyone else who carried on doing the day job and making sure no-one missed out as a result of our time and energies being diverted to the biggest ER call out we have ever experienced.

What it proved beyond doubt is that when push comes to shove we can do exactly what we are recruited and trained to do, and demonstrate that the Red Cross values underpin our actions all day, every day.

You should all be very proud of yourselves!

Sarah Gibson

Operations Director, CDDSCI

IN THIS ISSUE Page 4 Delivering provisions and assisting with

power outages, just some of the many

stories from the Winter Storms.

Page 5 Behind the scenes in Somerset. How the

back office teams played their part.

Pages 6 & 7 Other stories from around the counties -

including Dorset

evacuation Rest

Centres, and

volunteer Paul

Willerton’s

experience on

the Somerset

Levels.

International vehicle used for flood response

To make sure we could reach residents through the deep flood waters, we deployed the 7.5 tonne 4x4 UNIMOG vehicle, which is more commonly used to deliver international aid in mountainous or flooded terrain. The Unimog vehicle was sent from the international warehouse in Warmley, Bristol and crewed by Somerset volunteers.

Red Cross logistics manager during the response Beverley Sugden, said: “The Unimog has a large enough clearance to be able to get through flood water which is up to one metre deep so it will be driving into the villages through the back roads to deliver to the stranded residents”.

Welcome to the Spring Edition of your Red Cross Local Life

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The phone went at 11am on Saturday 25th January and it was Barbara from Somerset County Council. “Jo, we need help from the British Red Cross. The flood waters across the Somerset Levels are rising and we could really do with support from your volunteers. We’d also like you to represent the voluntary sector at the TCG (Tactical Co-ordinating Group – Silver). Any chance you can make the TCG meeting tomorrow at 10am in Yeovil?”. Setting off for Yeovil the following day having placed our volunteers on standby, I never thought we would still be there some seven weeks later. Sitting in that first TCG meeting alongside the many different agencies involved, the extent of the crisis became all too clear. Flood waters were rising and the existing Environment Agency machinery could not pump them away quickly enough. The village of Muchelney was already an island and Burrowbridge, Northmoor, Oath, Stathe and Thorney were all under threat. Thinking about our Red Cross capabilities, the Unimog stood out as the ideal vehicle to get essential support out to people in their

flooded homes. BWB (as she fondly became known) joined us the following day from Warmley and stayed with us for five weeks being expertly driven by volunteers and staff keen to play their part in getting critical goods and services through to communities marooned by the vast expanse of water. We quickly formed a ‘Logistics and Transport Cell’ to receive the many requests for help and assistance coming from those affected. One of our roles was to act as the administrators; we assessed the request, recorded it and then allocated the task to the most appropriate resource within the voluntary sector. In a short space of time, we had the following teams out on the ground: British Red Cross, Wessex 4x4 Response, Rotary, Salvation Army, RVS, Plymouth Brethren, RNLI, Burnham Rescue Boat, St John Ambulance all working closely together to provide humanitarian assistance to those affected. And what can I say about our own fantastic team? Everyone worked so hard to help: 4x4 drivers, crew, administrators in the Logistics Cell,

teams on foot with questionnaires, waste collections, help with shopping, working in the Rest Centres, offering support in the Flooding Assistance Centre, Silver Commanders, welfare checks and evacuations, working in the Flood Support depot, befriending and offering a friendly ear to those at the end of their tether….the list goes on. To everyone who has helped in any way, small or large – a huge thank you. Joanna Tennant Senior Services Manager, Support in Emergencies

What is…? TCG: Tactical Co-ordinating Group

(Silver) - Writes the tactical plan to

deal with the incident and ensures

actions taken by operational level

teams are effective and efficient.

Logistics & Transport Cell: Multi-

agency team working at the Tactical

level to receive, triage and allocate

requests for logistical, practical and

transportation assistance e.g.

allocate to the operational teams on

the ground for a response.

Joanna Tennant - 7 weeks in ‘Silver’

Page 3

Climbing over fences to help deliver shopping Salt Moor resident Mark Carpenter, 50, and his 84-year-old father William, live in a cottage adjoining Salt Moor pumping station in Somerset and gratefully received support from the Red Cross when they ran out of supplies. Jamie Piriou and Ella Coates drove their 4x4 Land Rover as close

as they could safely get to Mark and William’s home and then Mark walked half a mile along the riverbank to meet them. The three went to the local supermarket and then returned along the riverbank on foot, climbing several fences to reach Mark’s home. He says: “I knew that the Red Cross

helped people in this country but to actually have it done for yourself was great. We’ve never actually asked for anyone‘s help before and it meant a lot. They climbed over three or four fences and got completely covered in mud but seemed to love every minute of it. I can’t thank them enough.”

During the winter storms and flooding the Support in Emergencies teams responded to numerous call-outs from the power distribution companies, in Devon, Dorset, Cornwall and Somerset.

These included Christmas Eve, when Scottish & Southern called us to Branksome in Dorset to distribute hot drinks and food to houses without power. In Cornwall, where 2000 people were without power at one point, our crews were called out by Western Power Distribution with a busy day on 4th February.

Incidents included an elderly care home where we provided hot drinks for 30 residents until a generator arrived; support to a vulnerable couple who were reliant on power assisted beds; elderly customers stuck due to chair lift failure and in Truro, two volunteers were mobilised to a single resident with a premature new born baby to provide hot water and vital re-assurance.

When power failed, the Red Cross responded

Page 4

Somerset floods: behind the scenes Behind the scenes of any major response there has to be an effective ‘back office’ in order to manage the operation and make sure people get the help they need, when they need it.

On 27 January Red Cross in Somerset were asked to support the multi-agency response cell for the Somerset Levels flooding and be the ‘Voluntary Sector Support’ co-ordinator, reporting directly into Silver Command. The next day Joanna Tennant (SSM and Red Cross ‘Silver’), Beverley Sugden (Quality Assurance Manager), and Stephen Bennett (Assistant to Operations Director), headed for South Somerset County Council in Yeovil to get set up.

Their role was to handle and log all requests into the Logistics and

Transport Cell, allocate requests for support to voluntary organisations (such as Wessex 4x4 Response, Plymouth Brethren and of course, our own Red Cross Unimog and 4x4 Crews), plus keep a central resource list of offers of assistance from the public and organisations.

Whilst Joanna carried out her role as part of the Tactical Command Group for the Red Cross, Beverley and Stephen set to work on getting urgent help to people who needed it. Stephen says: “I had only just started with the Red Cross for two weeks before, so it was a big challenge but definitely the best training and induction I could have asked for. When I left the response over a month later I came away feeling the Red Cross had gained a lot of respect for

both our support on the ground and professionalism and commitment behind the scenes.”

Over the next 5 weeks, the Red Cross handled around 220 requests for logistics support on the Somerset Levels with around half of those being directly fulfilled by the Red Cross. They also logged over 200 offers of help which were accessed by all councils and command levels.

Admin staff back in the Taunton office also helped out sourcing items such as waders and life jackets as well as helping out with telephone enquiries from the public during the peak of response.

The experience showed that having staff and volunteers with strong office skills is as vital as crews on the ground, so the Red Cross can offer this type of co-ordination role in the future.

Tasks may include:

Greeting visitors and dealing with enquiries

Answering the telephone

Assisting with post and basic admin tasks

Being a friendly face and a helping hand!

If you, or someone you know would be interested in helping with admin support then please contact:

Cornwall: Sarah Few on 01872 267950 Devon: Jo Pendray on 01392 353294 Dorset: Lucy Russell on 01305 214431

Somerset: Lara Williams on 01823 273718

Do you have admin skills to offer the Red Cross?

We’re looking for flexible admin volunteers to help with general tasks in our offices (and responses like above).

As an existing volunteer, would you be interested in extending your role? Times are flexible - whole mornings or afternoons, however any hours would be considered and there may be times such as a major incident, when we’d be really grateful for your extra support ‘behind the scenes’.

Pictured: Inside the Silver Command Centre, Taunton Police Station (inset BBC News at Six, 31 Jan 2014)

Page 5

Volunteers provided first aid,

emotional support and signposting

to other agencies at various rest

centres across the area as needs

arose, including Bridgwater where

we supported 72 people from 36

households, handing out hygiene

kits containing toiletries such as

toothbrushes and shaving kits

which were well received.

In Dorset volunteers and staff went

the extra mile (including Klara

Downing who abandoned her other

half to the festive cooking!) when

two residential caravan parks were

evacuated due to flooding at

Christmas. On Christmas Eve the

Support in Emergencies teams

assisted with the evacuation of the

site at Ferndown and were called

out to a furniture shop where 40

people were located without

support. They also supported rest

centres at Weymouth and Portland,

which involved sourcing camp

beds from the British Red Cross in

Warmley.

In the early hours of Christmas Day

the site at Iford Bridge was also

evacuated, with a further rest

centre call-out at Boscome.

Volunteers like Peter Robinson

were straight on the scene, his

experience covered in the local

Bournemouth Daily Echo.

Huge thanks and well done to all.

And the work goes on..

Volunteers & staff go the extra mile in evacuation support

Throughout March as flood hit

residents are trying to recover,

volunteers from the Red Cross

Support at Home team are still

providing meet and greet and

general support at the weekly

‘Flooding Assistance Centre’ (FAC)

based in Bridgwater, Somerset.

The view from the ground. Volunteer Paul Willerton talks about his time on the flooding response. The sight of the British Red Cross UNIMOG traveling down the M5 from Bristol turned a few heads.

Many people have asked what is a UNIMOG? You could describe it as a 4x4 on steroids – it’s a 7.5 ton truck, the wheels are over a meter across, it has a wading depth of 1.2 meters (over 4 feet). There are 3 seats in the front and a large cargo area at the back, we had a step ladder to get up into the back. And just to make it more fun on our narrow roads, it is over 7 feet wide and left hand drive!

My employer (a large Government department) has recently introduced a scheme that allows up to 5 days ‘special leave’ for staff to undertake voluntary work – I was amongst the first in this area to take advantage of the scheme and was able to assist on 8 days during our response.

During this time we used the UNIMOG to access areas that very few other vehicles could go. We delivered sandbags, logs, heating oil and prescriptions to residents affected by the flooding. One day we transported the HART (Hazardous Area Response Team – Paramedics and Fire Service personnel) to a resident suffering from a heart problem, he was subsequently airlifted to hospital. On other days the vehicle was used to assist people evacuate from flooded homes and to carry out welfare checks on those that remained in their homes – many were completely dry, just cut off by deep flood water.

I’d seen pictures of the flooding on TV, but it was not until actually driving along roads that are over 3 feet deep in flood water with more water for as far as you can see that you really get an idea of the scale and the disruption that it causes, some of the scenes were a little surreal – vast expanses of water with speed limit signs just visible above the water.

What really impressed me was the local residents resolve to just try and get on with things as normally as possible, even if this meant getting up 2 hours earlier than normal to travel by boat out of the floods then to walk to the bus or their vehicles in the next village to get to school or to work.

Everyone we met while making deliveries or carrying out welfare checks were pleased to see us. I lost count of the number of times residents and members of other organisations commented that they had only ever seen the Red Cross working overseas, they were unaware of our work and capabilities in this country. Many are now aware, and I hope they’ll pass the message on.

By Paul Willerton, ER Volunteer

“It does highlight how

important it is for all

our volunteers and

staff to have an aware-

ness of all our services

to be able to raise

awareness and sign

post people where

necessary.”

Left: View from inside the

Unimog cab as it reaches

stranded households. During

his time on the Somerset

Levels, Paul also took some

fantastic photographs including

this one, which are invaluable in

telling our story and promoting

the excellent work we do.

Page 6

David Bernstein visited Taunton on 19th March 2014 to find out about our work across CDDSCI and in particular, learn about our response during the winter storms and flooding.

David took a very keen interest in all aspects of our range of operations and some of the key issues faced on the ground. During the day he was taken by volunteers to visit Somerset Levels residents, so he could hear first hand about their experience of the floods and how our assistance made a difference.

Later David listened to a ‘timeline’ presentation about how the incidents developed and were responded to, then thanked staff and volunteers for all their impressive work in supporting those in crisis and the impact it had made on the whole organisation. He described his visit as a ‘highlight’ of his recent trips across the UK sites.

John and Vera Budge live in Thorney Halt, one of the villages on the Somerset Levels that was completely cut off by floodwater for almost two months and the Budges were entirely dependent on outside help. Being stuck wasn’t their only worry. The couple were still trying to run their haulage business and since John has motor neurone disease and uses a wheelchair, Vera was concerned about leaving him alone for long periods. Vera said: “I’ve been getting quite stressed because I have to make all these plans just to get some basic shopping. I know John’s fine, but I do worry about something happening while I’m away.”

Apart from all the practical support a big part our role in the flood response has been welfare checks on vulnerable residents – and volunteer Cheryl Murray has been a regular feature at the Budge household. Vera says: “Cheryl often comes by to make sure we’re fine. It’s really nice to know someone’s there for you. And she’s so bubbly that if you’re feeling a bit down, she’ll have you laughing by the time she’s gone.” All their friends and neighbours have been wonderfully supportive, but they’re always pleased to see the Red Cross emblem.

Red Cross Chairman David Bernstein CBE visits Somerset to meet staff and volunteers

OTHER NEWS

Communications

UK media coverage

on the winter storms The comms division have been totting up the Red

Cross media coverage for the flooding and storms across the UK and

according to our media monitoring system, Gorkana, from October to

February we had a whopping 1092 pieces of UK ER coverage which

has an advertising equivalent value (which is what we would pay if

using the space to advertise) of an eye watering eight million

pounds! We are unable to be more specific about our Area coverage (which

is continuing), but this is a fabulous achievement overall. Thanks also to

our staff and crews for helping with numerous interviews and press

requests.

Devon

Dawlish flood fund

appeal Dot Mathews MBE, patron of Devon Red Cross, is representing the

Red Cross as a member of a Dawlish Flood Relief Appeal Panel. Our role is

as a ‘standing observer’ to help ensure the fund is used effectively on a

needs assessment basis. The fund has been established in partnership

with Community Interest Groups as a working group of Dawlish Town

Council. Properties and the main railway line which runs along the

coast at Dawlish (linking Exeter to Plymouth and Cornwall), were badly

affected by the winter storms and repairs are still in progress.

Above: Volunteer Peter Robinson receives a certificate of appreciation for his support when storms hit Dorset at Christmas.

Pictured left to right: David Bernstein, Peter Robinson; Annie Bibbings. (Taunton)

Left to right above: Vera Budge; John Budge; Cheryl Murray (volunteer) and Juliet Mountford (Director UK Service Development) at the Budges home.

Page 7

Practical support and re-assurance

stephenbennett@redcross.org.uk

NEXT ISSUE: Do you have a relative who volunteered for the Red Cross during WW1?

Open Gardens 2014 Calling all garden lovers! A number of gardens are taking part this year in Open Gardens to raise funds for the British Red Cross. Fundraising teams will be promoting these events in your local area and more may be added, so please support them and you may gain some fresh inspiration for your own garden project too! Cornwall 25 May 2-5pm Lower Hamatethy, St Breward,

Bodmin 25 May 2-5pm Bolts Quarry Farm, Penvorder

Lane, St Breward, Bodmin 15 Jun 2-5pm Helland Bridge Garden and Studio

Pottery, Riversmead, Helland Bridge, Bodmin. Devon 4 May 2-5pm Gnaton Hall, Yealmpton 4-5 May Cellars, Noss Mayo, Nr Plymouth 25 May 2-5pm ‘The Budleigh Collection’ - Lee

Ford/Roundhill/Longmeadow, Budleigh Salterton 31 May-1 Jun Broomhill Art Hotel, Muddiford,

Barnstaple 8 Jun 2-6pm Outer Down, Chagford 29 Jun Start House, Start, Slapton Village 7 Sep Reed Hall, Streatham Drive, Exeter. Dorset 18 May 1-5pm Milton Mill, West Milton, Bridport 23 September 11am - 4pm Mews Cottage, 34

Easton Street, Portland. Somerset 27 Apr 2-5pm Fairfield, Stogursey, Nr Bridgwater;

11 May 2-5pm Aller Farmhouse, Williton 8 Jun 2-5pm Hillcrest, Stoke St Gregory 15 Jun Glebe Court, West Monkton 21 Sep 2-5pm Hartwood House, Crowcombe

Heathfield, Taunton 4 Oct 10-4pm Walled Gardens of Cannington,

Church Street, Cannington, Bridgwater. For more details on the above or other fundraising events in your area please contact your local Community Fundraiser.

Dates for your diary

Our shop in Minehead is celebrating achieving a 100 per cent increase in sales last year compared to 2012, making it the most improved store in the Area. Elizabeth Williams, 75, a former nurse who has been a retail volunteer for an incredible 15 years, says they’re all very proud of the achievement: “I was really surprised but it’s nice to be recognised and it’s been great for morale.” Money raised from sales in Red Cross shops goes to a variety of Red Cross services including being ready to respond to emergencies like the Somerset flooding.

Red Cross shop celebrates 100 per cent sales boost

Charity of the year for MOTO We are thrilled that the Red Cross in Devon has been chosen by Moto in Exeter as its charity of the year. Under the partnership our Area has already benefited from a grant of £1,260 which will pay for the costs of keeping the Devon fire and emergency support (FES) vehicle on the road for a year.

Staff at MOTO Exeter will now undertake a range of fundraising initiatives in aid of the Red Cross and it is hoped some of their staff may also consider becoming volunteers.

To mark the significant involvement British Red

Cross volunteers and VADs had in World

War One, we are collecting stories, memories and

photos our current volunteers may have of their

relatives who played a part in the Great War.

Why not ask your family, maybe you have a

volunteering legacy you didn't know about?

We’d like to include some in the next edition of

Local Life so if you have anything on this or other

stories you’d like to share across the area, please

email:

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