50 people rescued during frantic 48 hours

FIRE and rescue crews came to the aid of 50 people during a frantic 48 hours which saw the emergency service deal with 80 flood-related calls from residents across the two counties.

Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service (HWFRS) received more than 160 calls from Saturday (November 24) up until this morning (Monday) - half of which were to do with incidents involving flooding.

The vast majority were taken from 10.30pm to 3am on Saturday night and Sunday morning with Worcester, Evesham, Hereford and Ross among the worst affected areas.

As we previously reported 15 residents in Kempsey had to be rescued at 5am on Sunday morning after one of the pumps on the village's new flood defences stopped working and people were left trapped in their homes by the rising flood waters.

Two people were also evacuated from their home in Bevere and taken to safety by a water rescue boat.

Crews were called to more than 60 incidents where the public needed assistance with most of these involving either motorists stranded in their vehicles or homes that had been flooded.

Fire control operators also fielded more than 50 calls where they gave advice over the phone and a crew was not needed.

Chief Fire Officer Mark Yates said: “We are fortunate to have water rescue equipment across our service which has helped tremendously with our response over the last few days.

"Our fire crews are constantly training for all eventualities and this stands them in good stead for when they are faced with incidents like the ones they dealt with over the last few days. It ensures we can continue to give the best possible response to our communities.

“Thankfully a lot of the water is now receding but we would like to remind motorists to exercise caution and not to enter flood water. A lot of the rescues we carried out over the last few days were people stuck in their cars. There may also be a lot of debris on the roads so driving conditions could still be difficult. Please do take extra care when driving.”

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