RRT Sandbagging at Milton Combe

Saturday afternoon 9^th January at 14:30 a member of the Rapid Relief Team (RRT) was driving through Milton Combe in Devon. Milton Combe is an 18^th Century village in a hollow with steep hills on three sides known as ‘Village in a hollow’ when they noticed anxious residents sand-bagging around their properties.  After speaking to one of the residents, he found out their concern was that after days of heavy rain the fast running river running through the village was rising.  To make things worse the river becomes restricted as it runs under some houses, and with the run-off water coming from the nearby Dartmoor National Park, they were anxious not to have a replay of the previous Sunday’s flooding.

However, it became apparent that there was a problem. The stocks of sand bags from the village store had already been used up and the level was expected to rise more within the next 12 hours.  More sand and sandbags were needed.

The Local RRT Team Leader was contacted and assistance was offered, and within an hour and half, 6 members of the RRT team were on site and a tonne of sand on its way after being purchased at the local Plymouth B&Q.  On arrival of the sand, bags started filling at a rate of knots and approximately 60 bags were filled and put into place and the remainder put into the village store.  By 17:30 RRT were on their way, leaving the residents feeling a little more restful with the reassurance that further help was available if required.

Trish, one of the residents said “they would have been in trouble if it hadn’t been for RRT.”

The RRT Team Leader contacted one of the residents on the Sunday to make sure they were all safe.  The great news was that the river level had risen but the flood defences had stood firm.  The residents were very grateful and relieved and couldn’t thank RRT enough for the support that appeared out of nowhere.