An Okehampton team helped rescue people from flood-stricken homes in East Devon earlier this week.

North Dartmoor Search and Rescue’s swift water rescue team answered the call to help people in villages along the River Otter between East Budleigh and Ottery St Mary.

The Okehampton rescuers divided into two teams – Dart 11 and Dart 12 – to check on river levels and residents cut off by the flooding as well as evacuating people from flooded properties and vehicles caught up in the flooding.

The Dart 11 team rescued one person and their dog from a flooded property next to the River Otter and also went to help someone having chest pains in the flood-stricken village of Otterton.

An ambulance met the team at the property and a rolling convoy following the ambulance back to the main road, avoiding flooded and damaged roads.

The other Okehampton team, Dart 12, were kept busy carrying out numerous village visits and going to a number of road accidents on flooded roads in the area.

The team were among a number of teams marshalled to help rescue people in East Devon following the heavy rain overnight on Monday into Tuesday (January 26-27). The teams met at 6am on Tuesday morning on the outskirts of Exeter at Sowton Industrial Estate to coordinate their operation.

It has been a busy January overall for the North Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team, as they were called out to help evacuate people in Exmouth on Wednesday and Thursday, January 14 and 15 after an unexploded Second World War bomb in the marina. A 600-metre cordon was erected around the device so it could be assessed and thn taken out to sea to be detonated.

This is the third time that the Okehampton-based team have been called out to help evacuate people after the discovery of unexploded World War Two bombs in the past five years. The first was in Exeter in February 2021, and a second major incident in Plymouth in February 2024

Team members within NDSART are highly trained in first aid, search skills, swift water rescue, rope rescue, 4x4 driving and search dog handling. They are all volunteers, and the team depends on donations and grants from the public to operate. Find out more at www.ndsart.org.uk