RNLI Flood Rescue Team volunteers from Penarth, Porthcawl, Barry Dock, Angle and Port Talbot have joined emergency services from across the country to help people caught up in floods in Cumbria.

RNLI volunteers operating in Carlisle and Cockermouth have evacuated over 300 people over the weekend and are continuing to help in affected areas today.

Two RNLI teams have been wading through flood waters to help people in Workington.

The RNLI’s team of specifically trained flood rescue volunteers arrived in Kendal on Saturday and have been helping the communities affected by flooding ever since.

RNLI volunteers from south Wales helping with rescue operations include Jason Dunlop from Penarth, Chris Missen from Porthcawl, John Perring from Port Talbot, Hugh Davies from Barry Dock and Sarah Lunn from Angle.

Among the tasks undertaken by the Welsh RNLI Flood Rescue Team volunteers was a joint operation to evacuate elderly and vulnerable residents of a care home in Carlisle last night.

About 15 of the home’s residents, and five carers, needed to be taken from the home, which had flood water throughout its ground floor and has lost power and was getting cold.

Working in partnership with fellow emergency services, three RNLI Flood Rescue Team boats were involved in the evacuation, with volunteers carrying the elderly residents down from the first floor to the waiting boats, which transferred them to dry land for further care. All were taken to safety.

Also in Carlisle yesterday, an 80-year-old woman had to be helped out of a first floor window onto a ledge after five foot of water flooded into her home on Sunday. She was transferred safely into an RNLI Flood Rescue Team boat. While in another flooded Carlisle property yesterday RNLI volunteers waded through feet of water to carry another two pensioners out on their shoulders on stretchers and into a rescue boat.

Among the hundreds of people evacuated by RNLI Flood Rescue Team volunteers were children, pensioners, pregnant women and pets – including a Great Dane.

RNLI volunteer Chris Missen, who travelled to Cumbria from Porthcawl, Wales, to help the rescue effort, said the conditions were ‘unprecedented.’

He said:

We have been working closely with the other emergency services to do what we can to help people, and fortunately the majority of the people we’ve evacuated have been uninjured but are understandably quite distressed. It’s heart-breaking to see what this has done to people’s homes, especially just before Christmas.

The scale of this incident isn’t like anything I’ve seen before, it’s relentless. I’ve been involved in six other flood rescue operations with the RNLI and this is by far the worst. It’s unprecedented. It has been emotionally and physically challenging for the RNLI volunteers but the teamwork has been excellent and the operations have gone well.

Flood Rescue Team volunteer, Glen Mallen said:

We currently have five Flood Rescue Teams on the ground, with four specifically adapted boats for flood rescue. We are working closely with other emergency services on the scene to help those in need. Thankfully most of those helped are uninjured, but understandably distressed. It is so sad to see this kind of devastation, especially so close to Christmas.

The RNLI Flood Rescue Team is supported by Toolstation.