Winkle lifesaving Club awarded for rescue efforts
With no contact or coordination, three former Winkle Surf Lifesaving Club captains arrived with their boats to assist.
WINKLE Lifesaving Club members were recently presented with certificates of appreciation for their brave rescue efforts during the April floods.
Club members, John Willis, Caden Button, Neville Hazell, Cruz Barber, Mark Barber and social member, Greg Taylor, were awarded at the Lifesaving KwaZulu-Natal AGM held at Marine Surf Lifesaving Club for their efforts to rescue people from the flooded Prospecton and Isipingo Beach village on April 12.
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The certificate read, “In appreciation of your efforts carried out during the recent floods in KZN. These efforts were beyond your call of duty and we value your time and initiative of you and your crews for the hard work and endeavours in the cause.”
At 06:50, ward 97 councillor André Beetge, put out a request for anyone with an inflatable boat with rescue experience to assist with the evacuation of Isipingo Beach houses that were flooded. With no contact or coordination, three former Winkle Surf Lifesaving Club captains arrived with their boats to assist.
They were Mark Barber, inshore rescue boat (IRB) instructor and past club captain, John Willis, past club captain and gold medal holder in an IRB competition and Neville Hazell, past club captain with more than 1 000 logged hours of IRB driving as well as safety officer for Winkle Club surfski events. Hazell brought along the current junior captain, Caden Button, to help launch the craft and assist with rescue and evacuation efforts.
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By 14:20, water levels receded and all crafts ended up at the high end of Joyner Road to be put back on trailers. “Between the three boats, we rescued between 80 to 100 people and took them to safe high ground.
Due to navigating boats down flooded streets, we encountered many ground obstacles and did sustain some physical damage to our craft. This was all in the nature of the task at hand. Thankfully, we all completed our mission with no casualties,” said the club’s president, Neville Hazell.
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