NSRI Rocky Bay saves lives during floods
When the team arrived at their Rocky Bay base at 05:00 last Tuesday morning, they too were met with flooding.
The National Sea Rescue Institute’s (NSRI) Station 39 Sea Rescue base at Rocky Bay has been the talk of the town after they helped rescue hundreds of people from the floods last week.
On the South Coast, there was heavy rainfall, severe flooding, homes and lives were lost, people were trapped in homes, and on the roads and more.
“Chaos reigned, but there were also many lives saved by our incredible dedicated team of Sea Rescue volunteers in KwaZulu-Natal working together as a team in so many areas, attending to many calls and rescues,” said Station 39 member, Linda Putter.
When the team arrived at their Rocky Bay base at 05:00 last Tuesday morning, they too were met with flooding.
This did not stop the team from heading for their rescue missions and they were able to still kit up, stay focussed and go out to save lives.
The shore crew cleaned up the station while at the same time monitored and relayed calls to the rescue team.
The NSRI crew was led by their station commander Kevin Fourie, CL 3 Coxswain Travis Clarke and rescue swimmer Deon Dekker who all attended to the rescues while two other crew members, Nicki Gibson and Wayne Van Nikkelen-Kuyper, manned the mobile and played an integral part in the communication between the rescue team and Linda Putter who was the shore controller.
This crew, together with another search and rescue team, were able to evacuate hundreds of people from flooded residential homes, factories and roads, particularly in the Isipingo and Prospecton areas.
“One rescue that really stood out for us was rescuing a father and his 20-year-old paraplegic daughter out of a tree on the verge of the N2 freeway opposite CTM,” said Putter.
“The vehicle they were travelling in disappeared under the 4-5m flooded freeway and the father hung onto his daughter in that tree for three to four hours before our crew found and rescued them in the heavy rainfall.”
The NSRI’s rescues did not go unnoticed and the team received praise on social media platforms for braving the weather and for their great services offered during the time of need.
Station 39 is in the process of recruiting four new trainee crew.
Anyone who wishes to join the Rocky Bay sea rescue crew, is passionate about saving lives at sea and has time available to do so, email station39@searescue.org.za
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