Busy Christmas period for NEWSAR and other North Wales Mountain Rescue teams
It has been a very busy festive period for mountain rescue teams across North Wales and beyond.
On the 23rd December, Swiftwater Rescue Technicians from teams across North Wales were put on standby to respond to the threat of flooding in Cumbria due to the adverse weather forecast for Christmas Day and Boxing Day. A combined NEWSAR and Ogwen Valley MRO team were identified to travel north on Boxing Day with additional resources travelling up the following day.
Early on Christmas Day, Llanberis MRT were called out to help an injured person on Snowdon – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-35181726. Later on that day, the forecast showed that the threat to Cumbria had subsided but was now closer to home! Contingency plans were reviewed and a decision made to keep our volunteers in North Wales.
On Boxing Day, NWMRA team members attended the joint Silver Tasking and Co-ordination Group to coordinate the Mountain Rescue response to floods. As a result, NEWSAR team members were sent to St Asaph and Corwen to help the Welsh Ambulance Service, Aberglaslyn MRT members were deployed to Beaumaris, Ogwen Valley MRO responded to calls for assistance in Trefriw, Llanrwst and Maenan Abbey and the other North Wales teams were on standby to backfill on the more ‘usual’ mountain rescue jobs.
Late on Boxing Day, a request for assistance came from North Yorkshire Joint Silver and early on the 27th December, a joint NEWSAR / Ogwen Valley MRO response team headed up to York to assist where required. Plans have also been put in place for additional resources from North Wales to head over to Yorkshire on the 28th too.
These photos from Ogwen Valley MRO below show North Wales team members in York where they had been deployed to assist a wheelchair bound lady from a riverside property in the city centre.
As with the floods in Cumbria early in December, volunteer mountain rescue team members from across the UK have headed out to wherever they can assist those affected by the severe weather and our thoughts go out to all those who have been affected by this over the last few weeks.