MOZAMBIQUE
- February 2000
Report
from the Cheshire SAR Team
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MOZAMBIQUE
- February 2000
|
|
Report
from the Cheshire SAR Team
|
Introduction
The team have had an active start to the year with 6 members attending a three day exercise in Hampshire with team members from all the other U.K. Brigades participating in the overseas response role. At the exercise we were also joined by the German Fire Service team who worked with them during the Turkish earthquake in 1999. The training sessions included working with helicopters , trauma casualty care, tunnelling techniques, and the use of search and rescue dogs.
Mozambique
On 29 February the team were put on standby for deployment to Mozambique where devastating flooding was affecting vast areas of the country. On Wednesday the Home Office requested the deployment of the team boat handlers . The three team members FF John Pugh (Stockton Heath), FF Gary Williams (Crewe) and LFF Martin Walsh (Widnes) were mobilised to Manston in Kent to fly out to the disaster area. On arrival in Mozambique the rescue effort was being scaled down as the floodwaters were receding but there were real concerns that the area would be hit by a cyclone bringing more floodwater and further damage .
Fortunately this danger never materialised. The team were joined by members of the Royal National Lifeboat Institute and after unloading supplies and receiving a briefing on the mission were flown by helicopter to Beira a city to the north of the capital city of Maputo. Beira is a coastal area on the Indian Ocean and gave the team access to the river Buzi.
The overwhelming need of the population for all forms of aid was becoming apparent so the team set off in four boats to travel up the River Buzi to locate isolated communities , deliver aid and medical staff, and to arrange the evacuation of any sick and injured people.
The team took with them a doctor from the French charity 'Medicine Du Monde' who carried out the health checks on the flood victims found on the isolated patches of dry high ground. The expedition travelled over 80 miles along the river in three days at the end of which the combination of exposure to the sun in temp of 40' F and 17 hour working days forced the teams to request reliefs.
A second team were flown out by helicopter with additional aid for delivery to villages and to carry out the crew transfer. Initially the helicopter crew could not locate the team as they were on a sandbank in an area of river which was 74km wide. A signal flare was operated to direct the helicopter in to their position. With a fresh crew the teams carried on searching the jungle for the isolated groups and when they found them the team were received with some initial suspicion by the residents as they did not realise at first who they were or why they had come.
The suspicion was soon overcome by the approach of the U.K. team who had all been briefed on the customs and culture of the people in the area. After two more days of moving from group to group the relief team arrived to commence the journey back down the river to the Indian Ocean.
When the teams were not on the mission in the boats they organised the unloading of aid from arriving aircraft and the transport to move it on to its destination . This was a skill developed in Macedonia during the Kosova refugee crisis last year and was a very welcome assistance to the aid agencies.
Despite the conditions and the real risk of diseases the U.K. Fire Service teams remained 100 % fit during the deployment which is a credit to the personal fitness, of the team members. Great care was taken by the members who watched out for each other and the training for living in hostile conditions undertaken by the team was used to good effect. The relief effort was now moving from a rescue/emergency to a rebuilding phase and the decision was made to withdraw the S.A.R. Teams. The team returned to the U.K on the evening of Thursday 16 March .
Conclusion
They have been de briefed and met the Occupational Health Nurse as a preliminary health check. The team feel they have made a valuable contribution to the U.K. aid effort and are very conscious of the formidable rebuilding work required for many years in the areas of Mozambique that they operated in.