All hands on deck for Douglasdale police

Colonel Tinus Swart explained that when he arrived at work on the morning of the floods there were numerous reports of people being swept into rivers, as well as a report of two people who were stuck in a tree hanging over the Jukskei River.

A woman who was passing by the river was swept in and when a man attempted to rescue her he was also pulled into the raging waters.

The man and woman managed to grab hold of the branches of a willow tree which was hanging over the river to keep themselves afloat.

Colonel Swart arrived on the scene to supervise the rescue of the two people but found that the police officers deployed to the scene were standing on the shore of the river but were not attempting to wade into the river to rescue the man and woman.

“It was then that I realised that most of the officers could not swim and this was the reason they had not attempted to enter the river,” he said.

Colonel Swart and head of communications for the Douglasdale police, Warrant Officer Balan Muthan, who are both experienced swimmers, decided to wade into the river, which was 8m deep at some points, to assist the stranded people.

“While the man seemed steady the woman was starting to slip from the tree and we were afraid she would fall back into the water before we could get close enough to rescue her,” Swart said.

The two senior officers had to talk to the stranded people to keep them calm while attempting to rescue them.

Eventually Colonel Swart and Warrant Officer Muthan managed to get close enough to the pair to grab hold of them and bring them to the shore.