Saturday 26th December 2015 (Boxing Day), 09:20am

CVSRT received an urgent request from West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service and West Yorkshire Police for immediate assistance with the widespread severe flooding along the River Calder and throughout the Calder Valley.

What followed over the next 24 hours, (and continues to reek havoc) is well documented in the press and across all the social media channels.  There is very little more we can say to describe the utter devastation that has ruined so many homes and lives.

CVSRT Swiftwater Rescue Technicians (SRTs) were tasked to assist with numerous rescues throughout the valley based on medical priority, including checking the welfare of several elderly and ‘at risk’ members of the community, and also the evacuation of medical emergencies including the evacuation of an elderly gentleman suffering from chest pains via HM Coastguard helicopter (SAR-H).

In early December, our SRTs helped fellow rescuers in Cumbria with their floods.  Yesterday our local emergency services battled tirelessly to assist those in need in Calderdale.  Today the clean up began throughout the valley. Tomorrow, CVSRT will deploy several SRTs to assist within another surge expected in York whilst the remaining CVSRT members remain on stand-by to assist the other emergency services. 

The scale of the destruction is vast, swift and heartbreaking, and as members of the community, we feel the extreme sadness too.

Please pull together at this horrendous time and help each other as members of your community. 

Community Foundation for Calderdale have launched the ‘Calderdale Flood Relief Appeal’ to raise funds to support people within the valley whose lives have been affected by the floods.

Please dig deep and support if you can: https://localgiving.com/appeal/Flooding

Photograph by Dave Whitehouses, Mytholmroyd.