Ipswich RRT shows its value
With the perilous weather forecast warning that the impending arrival of storm St Jude was imminent, the RRT (Rapid Relief Team) based in Ipswich accordingly updated their Action Plan. Forward-planning had already been completed in advance for how they would be able to assist the community in any hurricane conditions, giving the team a basic starting point.
Although Suffolk certainly didn’t receive the worst of the weather, the wind heavily intensified between 07.30 – 9.30hrs, resulting in a large amount of trees being swept down throughout Suffolk. While some fell in harmless places, others toppled dangerously, blocking roads and taking down phone and power lines in their wake. Within a short time, many of the local villages had lost their power supply entirely.
By 09.00hrs, the first team, consisting of Keith and Gerry, were ready prepared and dispatched on the road to help. They headed to Humber Doucy Lane in Rushmere St Andrew, and worked to clear four large trees that were hazardously obstructing the road.
The village of Playford was the next stop-off venue in need of the Rapid Relief Team’s assistance, where a sizeable tree had come down and blocked the road close to a community member’s house. Gyles and Sam had already begun work to move this tree and they were also joined by Clive. After around an hour of hard graft, the road was re-opened. The villagers were extremely appreciative of the team’s efforts.
Gerry, Keith and Clive stopped to cut up one more fallen tree on the way back to work which became tangled with a supporting line to a telegraph pole, and then followed on to assist with clearance work Foxhall. A trailer was then routed back to Playford to remove the majority of the scattered timber. The main road through Little Bealings was also badly hindered by fallen oak trees. Mark, Jonathan, Murray and Steve spent the entire afternoon sawing their way
through the tree debris to clear the way and re-open the road.
At 15.30hrs, a large team was dispatched to see where else their assistance was required. This included Keith, Gerry, Clive, Miles, Tobi, Gyles, Sam, Ben, Jed and Gavin. Heading towards Sandy Lane, Claydon, the team cut through some sizeable sections of oak trees strewn across roads, finishing off in Henley where two more obstructions that had fallen across the footpath and into gardens, were removed.
As a team, approximately 60 hours of manual work was carried out on the day, for the benefit and safety of the local community.
There was one action point that was noted and agreed for future improvement: communication. Liaising with a large and enthusiastic team proved difficult at times, particularly when working in rural areas where mobile phone reception isn’t always reliable and also when phone lines are incapacitated.
Where have you RRT guys sprung from? I didn’t know such a quick response organisation could even exist around here!
Thanks for all your help on a dark night, and thanks even more for leaving the logs!!
Henley,
If this is the first you’ve seen of the RRT, check out what the Aussie RRTs have been up to… https://www.theplymouthbrethren.org/2013/10/ !!
True Christianity!
Me, for those of us who don’t understand,
What is True Christianity?
Sorry, bad use of words… perhaps I should have said Real Christianity. These acts of selflessness and caring for others demonstrate the real Christian spirit.
Nice trousers Mr G.A.H.! Marv work chaps – good to see you didn’t just LEAF all the trees alone. 🙂
Let’s raise a cheer
To all those on here
For moving the trees
And getting roads clear!
well done to everyone, all u guys do an awesome job whenever and where ever u can!!!
keep it up!!!!!!!!!
any logs going spare?? lucky things….!
great work boys
Just what I thought – hurricane turned up at the right time of year! Well done RRT Ipswich – hope you got your logs’ worth out of it!
Good work! Especially as snedding windthrown trees is highly hazardous, so be careful!
Well done the Rapid Relief Team! very inspiring to see young people lending a helping hand and giving up their time unselfishly – an example to the rest of us! keep it up!
Excellent work… !! Can some of you now mend my fence?!
where are you? may be able to do something!
A BIG WELL DONE to Ipswich…….. often despised but rarely beaten
Awesome work – without you guys I reckon some of those trees would still be there now! brilliant how a team can swing into action straight away.
Excellent work RRT. Keep it up
Excellent work everyone, keep it up. There’s plenty of enthusiasm in Ipswich.
would like to encourage you all to keep going! Well done 🙂
Well done team a great effort, the progress was remarkable. I hope you got provided with lots od tea and coffee, shame the electric was off!
Very glad to see a team working safely and effortlessly a well planned exercised which shows that together we can achieve more.
Well done
WELL DONE the lot of you!! … brilliant stuff … its always good to show a helping hand! 🙂 keep up the hard work! 🙂
how lovely everyone….. keep it going ippy….
Well done RRT for all your hard work Keep it up.
Super work! Really appreciate all you have done to clear the roads nearby! 🙂
I am a PBCC member from France, and was on the M4 that day and can witness it was a real hurrican ! Thanks for all the work done for the wellfare of all.
Many many thanks from all of us at Playford for your hard work, we really appreciated it.
That is some time invested, well done and keep up the excellent support – a great example of the proactive nature of the RRT Teams.