Airmen & Soldiers Dig Deep to Combat UK Floods 14.02.14
7Military personnel are digging deep to produce thousands of sandbags for residents in flood hit areas of southern England.
Airmen and soldiers are working side-by-side at a number of depots packing and shipping sandbags for distribution to households most in need.
At one centre at Chieveley, next to the M4 motorway in Berkshire, around 100 men and women from RAF Halton in Buckinghamshire and RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire are packaging a mountain of sand every day.
Flight Lieutenant Dave Skinner, who is overseeing the operation, said: "We filled 5,500 sandbags yesterday and are hoping to beat that record by reaching a total of 6.500 today (Thursday)
"I estimate we have approximately 100 tons of aggregate to pack and ship. When you consider that just six sandbags in a doorway can help save a house from a flood - our supporting efforts could lead to many hundreds of homes being saved. "
He was assisted by Sergeant Stephen Hoey of Royal Logistics Corps, who is in constant touch with the Army's 145 Brigade who are in charge of supporting the civilian authorities with flood relief in the Thames Valley area.
He said: "The sand is delivered to this depot, and another in Windsor, from locations across the UK for us to bag before being taken by lorry to where they are most needed."
The RAF Brize Norton crew arrived from their Oxfordshire base at 0700 on Thursday and were split into to two teams each working alternate 30 minute shifts over a 12 hour day.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the delivery chain, some of the 233 personnel from RAF Honington in Suffolk who arrived in Windsor on Tuesday have been using their six tonne lorries to deliver the filled sandbags to vulnerable homes and residents' collection points in the Maidenhead area.
They were visited by the Officer Commanding Support Wing at RAF Honington, Wing Commander Phil Reid, who praised the smooth way a large number of personnel had been brought in to help in the Thames Valley area.
He said: "When you consider that II Squadron RAF Regiment were protecting Camp Bastion in Afghanistan until last November and are now helping with flood relief, it shows how agile the RAF can be in carrying out contingency operations."