Kendal Mountain Rescue Team members were in action throughout the weekend of the floods. Photo: Kendal MRT

Rescuers in a flood-hit Cumbrian town have revealed that a team member’s home was badly affected by water during Storm Desmond.

Volunteers from Kendal Mountain Rescue Team spent last weekend helping residents and businesses in the town and surrounding areas even though their own houses were at risk.

A team spokesperson said: “We would like to express our sympathy to all that have been affected by flooding and that find themselves in temporary accommodation at this time of the year.

“This includes one of our team members who is very badly affected and a few others who spent Saturday evening hoping that the water would come no higher.”

The Kendal team said it was heavily involved in rescue operations in its home town and nearby villages, working closely with the emergency services and the local council throughout the weekend.

In nearby Staveley, an elderly man drowned in a culvert during the floods.

A team spokesperson said: “The team rescued a mother and two young children from their landing window in Sandylands and the occupants of a car immobilised under the railway bridge on Burneside Road.

“The team helped Northwest Ambulance by making one of our Land Rovers available to transport paramedics and equipment and on Sunday the team helped the ambulance service evacuate a heart patient.

“Also on Sunday alongside Bay Search and Rescue, we completed a tricky extrication of a couple of elderly people trapped in their house that, at the time, was in the River Bela in Milnthorpe.

“We were also asked to assist in the attempted rescue of the gentleman who tragically became trapped in a culvert at Staveley. Our thoughts are with his family.”

Kendal MRT volunteers also knocked on doors warning people of the situation and carried out numerous welfare checks throughout the night to see if vulnerable people needed any extra help.

A team member also went to Penrith to help with the overall co-ordination of mountain rescue teams and other organisations across the whole of Cumbria.

The spokesperson said: “The team would like to thank the other voluntary organisations who helped the response in Kendal.

“In particular Bay Search and Rescue provided invaluable support with their specialised Hagglund vehicles, Duddon and Furness Mountain Rescue Team, before they were sent elsewhere in the county; Bowland Pennine Mountain Rescue Team, who gave up their Christmas dinner to help in Cumbria, the RNLI, who helped with the evacuation of a property in the Lyth valley before heading to Cockermouth; the International Rescue Corps team from Scotland and the blood service volunteers from Glasgow, who helped the police with welfare checks.

“We would also like to thank the people and businesses of Kendal and Milnthorpe who have supported us through the weekend with flasks of soup, sandwiches, chips and moral support.”