Volunteers and staff at East Sussex Wildlife Rescue & Ambulance Service’s Casualty Care Centre at Whitesmith in East Sussex, are mopping up this morning after torrential rain left an inch of water through a third of their centre. The A22 next to the centre was also flooded and closed too.
“When we arrived in the morning we were greeted by water in our reception, our Assessment Room, Casualty Room 2 and 3, and along one of the corridors” said Weekend Casualty Manage Chris Riddington, “this has come just at the wrong time for us as we are virtually full with over 230 casualties currently in care – so are volunteers are already having to work extremely hard on their feed and clean shifts without having to mop and clean up this as well.”
“The situation was made but worse by Sussex Police refusing to let WRAS volunteers through to gain access to the centre without driving through the flooding. I spoke to Sussex Police and was told in no uncertain term that they would not let anyone through the to centre. The road block was a mile away from our centre and there are many houses and business unnecessarily effected as a result. Luckily we had some volunteers who managed to gain access before the police attended helping to prevent us from being in breach of animal welfare laws. As a result we have not been able to send any ambulances out or attend any casualties as a result. This is daft as we don’t have to drive through the flood water.” Said Trevor Weeks founder of WRAS.
The charity has struggled to answer phone calls and deal with emergencies cases unable to admit casualties whilst the clean-up operation was taking place.
“Luckily it is only ground water and come up through the floor. We have had problems previously and we have our own ground water flood defences in the building to help keep this sort of thing under control but the severe weather was torrential rain was just too much. We have such a good team of volunteers and staff and they are working very hard this morning cleaning up and drying the place out and using dehumidifiers. Some of our volunteers had problems trying to get past the road closures once the police were in attendance which didn’t help.”
East Sussex WRAS is asking people to bear with them because of the flooding and because of how busy they are. “We have over 230 casualties in care at the moment, so we are now very limited on what we can take in, but this changes on a daily basis as more and more casualties are released. This is the busiest time of year for us and any help with donations and funding would be really appreciated” said Trevor.
More information on the work of the charity can be found at www.wildlifeambulance.org where donations can also be made or by calling 01825-873003.
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