Episode 1 Saving Lives at Sea

This programme contains some strong language.

We're an island nation, drawn to the sea that surrounds us.

For many, it's a playground.

For others, it's where we earn our living.

But the sea is unpredictable.

It can change in an instant.

And when accidents happen, they happen very fast.

You're in cold water.

You're not going to last long.

There to save our lives is

a volunteer army of 5,000 ordinary people...

..ready to leave their jobs, their families and race to our rescue.

One minute, you're just an ordinary person.

The next minute, you're a lifeboat crew member.

They're the last line of defence against the deadly water.

I wouldn't even like to think what would have happened if there was no-one there.

I was waiting for death, but a guardian angel came.

To save someone's life is a privilege.

You feel like you're doing the most important thing on earth.

Thank you.

Over 200 years, the volunteers of the RNLI

have saved the lives of more than 140,000 people.

Brave lifeboatmen don't cry.

Rubbish. I do.

Treating every call-out as a matter of life and death.

That's what we all turn up for - to save people's lives.

It's Saturday morning in an out-of-season Blackpool,

and holiday-makers are few and far between.

PHONE BEEPS

Shortly after 8am, the crew of volunteers at the lifeboat station

receive a call for help.

When the alarm is raised at this time of year, life expectancy

for anyone struggling in the water can be measured in minutes.

The woman has been spotted swimming out to sea fully clothed.

In Blackpool, we do get our fair share of people

who have got emotional and mental problems.

If we're fortunate, we'll get there and we'll rescue them.

If we're not fortunate, it could be days or weeks later when they're

-recovered.

-Today, the sea temperature is only 11 degrees.

In water this cold, cramp and exhaustion set in rapidly.

Come on, mate.

'She was quite a way out, but she wasn't in actual difficulty.'

'She was quite happily just swimming around.'

She wasn't trying to drown herself or anything like that.

'She did not want to get into the boat,

'she wanted to carry on swimming.

'But we managed to talk her round.'

That's all right, sweetie.

Weld told her, you know, we can't take you to Jesus, but we can certainly take you back to shore.

-Jesus!

-'A lot of people we get are difficult to communicate with at first.

'That particular woman...'

..the communication was there, but she wasn't necessarily listening to what we were saying to her.

Jesus! Jesus!

-Thank you, good, aren't they?

-LAUGHTER

'That moment when she spotted the wellingtons...

'..did snap her out of it, and then she could understand us fully.'

Jesus.

'I remember leaving the house.

'The sea is only a five, ten minute walk from where I live.'

But how I got there, I don't know.

Do you remember getting in?

I actually don't. I remember being in, but I don't remember getting in.

-Give me a minute.

-Give you a minute?

All right?

You tell us when you're ready.

'I was always confident, always self assured,'

and always regarded as quite a strong person.

But I think going through a messy divorce, life's events,

depression and anxiety, they can hit you at any time.

You might think, "Oh, well, OK," but when they all come together...

..there's only so much people can take.

You know? We're only human.

-It's all right, I can walk.

-Are you going to stand up, then?

-Yeah.

-Come on, then.

-I can walk. I can see the light.

Just swing your legs over. That's it. And the other one.

'In the words of friends and family, there's the normal Lindi,'

which is the Lindi today, and then there's another one.

It's a bit like a Jekyll and Hyde.

So I was probably, yeah,

it was the other Lindi that day.

Our job is just to rescue people who are in distress.

Whether they be accidentally in distress,

or whether it is their intent to put them in that position.

What we are not there to do is judge people.

You know where the sea and the sky meet each other?

I think I just wanted to get over to that bit.

I don't know if I thought heaven was over there or something.

I don't know.

Since her rescue, Lindi has been receiving regular psychiatric treatment.

If the RNLI crew hadn't come out and I'd gone a bit further,

I might not have been so lucky.

People have heroes that come, you know,

knights in shining armour galloping on a horse.

Well, obviously my heroes came in a boat and wellies.

SHE LAUGHS

Nationwide, 5,000 yellow-booted volunteers

are on standby right through the winter.

At Abersoch in North Wales, there are 15 people on the crew.

This is Fritz, he is the senior helm.

-He's been on the station about 25 years.

-We won't mention it.

Really? And he's my fiance.

LAUGHTER

And you have to excuse me, I've got to answer my phone.

Excuse me. Hey, how you getting on?

Is there a strong bond between you and your fellow crew members?

Oh Christ, yeah. It's like a little family in the station.

Because we all live locally, we have known each other for years.

We all get on together. It is good craic, really.

Fritz lives a few miles from the station with

his springer spaniel puppy, Belle, Alissa, who he met through the RNLI,

and his teenage children.

Ever since we were born, Dad has been part of the lifeboat,

-so we just react to it as...

-Normal.

-..normal, everyday activity, really.

-Yeah.

-You'll come back, it's all right.

Yeah. It'll be a good thing.

-It'd be quite sad if I didn't come back.

-Well, yeah.

All RNLI volunteers must come to accept the risks they face.

But it's during these winter months

that the dangers are at their greatest.

PHONE BEEPS

Shortly after 11am, the alarm goes off.

One of two spear fishermen fishing at the base of a nearby cliff

has been dashed against the rocks by a wave and injured his head.

We found out that it was two adults and one was not moving.

So, immediately, it's the urgency. It picked up.

27-year-old Andy has only just qualified as a helmsman.

There was definitely a few nerves the first time in charge

after passing out two days before.

So I asked Fritz to come with me as a bit of experience.

The casualties are stranded on a stretch of the coast

notorious for its strong swells.

As they approach the cliff, the winds picks up to a force seven.

The crew spot the casualties on a rocky outcrop,

just above the reach of the waves.

They'd obviously clambered up the rocks themselves

as the sea was getting higher. They had nowhere else to go,

because it was an overhanging cliff above them.

It's a bad place to be. Yeah.

We decided to put the nose of the boat into the rocks.

A pretty hairy situation to get the boat into.

With the wind worsening, experienced helm Fritz takes over.

If you don't time it right,

you could be pushed with the swell on top of the rock and then you're

stuck on them yourself.

Take it easy, mate.

While Fritz is now able to retreat to a safe distance...

..balanced on a narrow ledge,

Andy and Paul must try to assess the casualties.

One of them told me he'd banged his head

and he had some sort of neck injury as well.

I was quite wary that we needed to keep him still.

The first thing we did was to try to put a neck brace on the casualty.

The waves were building up, so it was getting quite tricky.

I straddled the casualty, just to try to protect him

so he didn't get washed away.

-Were they scared?

-Yeah.

They were very scared.

Because the wind was picking up,

the waves just kept on getting bigger and bigger.

It just became wild out there, really.

It was quite a frightening sea, really.

Given reports of the casualty's condition,

the coastguard has scrambled a helicopter.

But, as it arrives, the seas continue to deteriorate.

Paul spotted some large waves coming in

and they were pretty much at our level.

A big wave completely swamped us all.

It all went dark.

I grabbed one of the men's legs.

I realised then that it was pulling me off the cliffs

with the volume of water, so, if I didn't let go of the casualty,

he would have come down the rocks with me.

So I had to make a decision to let go.

That's when I was washed off the cliffs.

Swept off the cliff, Paul is now at risk of being

smashed against the rocks and dragged out to sea.

When I was in the water, I could make out some shapes of the rocks,

so I kind of swam towards them.

I don't know where the energy came from, to be honest.

I just managed to find a gap in between the waves.

I just went for it.

He managed to grab hold of the rock face and climb back to help Andy,

who was securing the other two on the rock,

just in case another wave came.

It was quite frightening, really, for him, I'd say.

1-2-2 came, the helicopter came.

And we asked them to winch all four of them off the rock face.

Did you ever think you were going to die?

Possibly for a split second when I was in the water.

I thought about my family.

We'd just had a newborn baby girl,

and I just thought, "There's no way it's time to die yet."

The last thing you want to do is lose one of your colleagues.

Especially as it was my decision to put him on the ledge.

Yeah, I don't really want to think about it, to be honest.

Thanks to the efforts of the crew,

the two spear fishermen made it safely to hospital.

-Are you a brave man, Paul?

-I wouldn't call myself brave, no.

I just like to help out.

Probably more scared doing this interview than I was doing that shout.

'The recent gales were responsible for one of the worst tragedies

'ever known off the Welsh coast.

'The 7,000 tonne cargo ship Samtampa was driven ashore at Sker Point, near Porthcawl.

'All 41 members of her crew lost their lives.

'Heroic attempts at rescue were made by the Mumbles lifeboat,

'and this gallant bid to save life resulted in a second tragedy,

'the lifeboat capsized and her entire crew of eight were lost.'

More than 400 lifeboat volunteers

have died trying to rescue people at sea.

And for the current crew at the Mumbles Lifeboat Station

in Swansea Bay, the 1947 Samtampa tragedy still resonates.

The eight crew of the lifeboats launched from a lifeboat station

that was still in use until two years ago.

And at times, that had not been far from my mind.

I'd never lost that, because eight men went from that boat house

and never came back.

All the crew on board the lifeboat, as well as on the vessel,

drowned in the oil from the Samtampa,

as opposed to the sea itself.

I would imagine that would be a terrible way to go.

All eight men who died attempting to rescue the Samtampa crew

are buried together in a cemetery overlooking the bay.

Obviously, things are a lot safer today,

but the conditions that occurred on the 23rd of April, 1947,

have occurred since then around South Wales,

and have been more severe at times even. The risks are always there.

The waves are always there, the wind is always there.

You would hope that it wouldn't happen again,

but there is always a potential of it, yes.

In Mumbles, I believe we have lost the most lifeboat crew of any lifeboat station.

We don't want to become casualties.

We want to come home.

Today, there is a spell of winter sunshine,

but the sea is still an icy five degrees.

PHONE BEEPS

An emergency call is coming in.

Slam the brakes.

And the Mumbles crew launch their inshore boat.

When you get a call to Three Cliffs,

the first thing you think is, you know,

"We'd better get there quick, because of how treacherous it is."

The Bristol Channel has the second highest tidal range in the world.

And on flat beaches like those around Three Cliffs,

the tide comes in dangerously fast.

When we get a call to that area, it is always fear the worst, really.

This area has seen more than 40 incidents in the last five years.

There are parts of the Bristol Channel

where you would struggle to outrun the tide.

Two people lost their lives

in the waters around the bay just last summer.

And the coastguard has scrambled a helicopter to the scene.

-All right, how you doing? All right.

-Just put the bow on, Rich.

There she was on the rocks with the rising tide.

And then behind her there was a sheer rock face of about,

well, over 100 feet.

No way up. No way down.

She was stuck there, really.

Former nursery teacher Ann went to rescue her dogs after they became

cut off by the incoming tide.

Now, I know that coast like the back of my hand,

and I know you have to act very, very quickly.

So I started to wade across to where the dogs were,

and then it was waist high within half a minute.

It was so fast.

I know it comes in fast along that part of the coast, it's notorious,

but this day it...

..it outran me.

And I had to step in to, it must've been a deep rock pool,

because I was soon out of my depth.

And then I had to swim to stay up, which wasn't easy,

because all of my heavy winter clothes were saturated now.

It's just like swimming with lead weights in your pocket.

I was sinking.

I simply couldn't do it any more.

And I felt so calm.

It was ridiculous, I felt so calm.

And I looked at the dogs and I thought to myself, "Oh,

"so this is how I end my days, drowning trying to save my dogs,"

and I wasn't at all upset or worried.

When I sank down, luckily my left foot touched on a rock,

and I managed then to push myself up with my left foot,

and I scrambled up onto the rocks where the dogs were.

Would it be safer to do a dog first?

-Hello.

-Her name's Jenny.

Jenny, can you come to us?

It's a frightening enough experience for a person who

knows that help is at hand, but the dogs don't know we're there to help.

Can you pass me Jenny's lead?

'We tried to get the dogs in first.'

Jenny. Good girl, come on.

Good girl.

But they weren't moving from Ann's side.

-OK, great.

-Ann wasn't really going without the dogs...

You got the boat, boys.

..and the dogs certainly weren't going without Ann.

So we decided on a change of plan.

Do you want to come down first and the dog will follow you, then?

We would then bring Ann into the lifeboat and get Ann to

call the dogs herself.

There you are, Ann.

Nice and easy, Ann.

You can stand on there.

-That's it.

-Jenny!

-That's it.

-Come on, Jenny!

-Good girl.

The Bernese Mountain dog, I thought, "This is going to be the tricky one."

One dog in particular was a lot bigger than the other.

I didn't fancy picking that one up.

In you go.

Come on, Jess! Come on, Jess.

Come on, Jess!

-That's it, good girl, good girl.

-Hurray!

DOG WHIMPERS

We hear, time and time again, people entering to help animals and,

unfortunately, the dog will get out safely, and the owner doesn't.

And, er, like I say, year on year, you see this happening.

Well done, Rich, you are keeping her really dry there, Rich.

The sea was determined to get me that day.

There is no doubt about it.

It was absolutely determined to get me.

And if it wasn't for the RNLI, it would have.

Hello, Jess. Hello.

-Do you like dogs?

-I do. I have always had a dog,

and I've actually got an eight-week-old golden retriever puppy.

Would you risk your life for your dog?

It would be easy to say,

"No, I wouldn't", but...

..knowing what she means to me...

..you know, obviously, if I saw her in trouble,

I'd want to try help her. It's human instinct, isn't it?

We see a lot of animal rescues.

Dogs are the favourite, I think.

There was even an incident of a dog which fell 300 foot down a cliff.

Hello. It's OK.

So you're all nice and warm. Good girl.

-You do see other farm animals.

-SHEEP BLEATS

Sheep, cows...

COW MOOS

Personally, I haven't rescued a deer.

I've handled rescues of animals, from anything from a horse to a cow,

to an iguana to a snake, dolphins.

Tried to get dolphins back into the sea.

Some people will be thinking,

"Why are you risking your life to try and rescue a cow or something?"

We do it, because we like saving lives.

We are there to help all creatures great and small.

Well done, boys.

At the other end of Wales, on the island of Anglesey,

is Moelfre Lifeboat Station.

PHONE BEEPS

Mid-afternoon, a call comes in from the coastguard.

Five people in the water.

A group of people in a speedboat are in trouble two miles down the coast.

The all-weather lifeboat is scrambled to Point Lynas.

An area prone to an unusual and dangerous phenomenon

called a tidal race.

It's when you have a depth change from deep water to shallow water,

that causes waves over the bank.

When the incoming tide passes

over a submerged reef or shelf in the seabed,

it creates breaking waves and hazardous currents

that can catch out even the most experienced sailors.

The sea can hit you on the bow, and then it can hit you side-on as well.

We go on exercise there quite often, because of the big waves there.

They'll swamp you.

There's many a people that have died out there.

The coastguard helicopter has located the casualties

washed into a cove, along with their waterlogged boat.

The immediate concern was how long have they been in the water,

what state they were in?

Roger, we're sending two people back to you.

One has been sick...

As the crew begin to ferry the stricken sailors to the lifeboat,

one of the casualties complains of shortness of breath.

If somebody says they have got breathing difficulties,

we have to take that very seriously.

It's a, you know, post-rescue collapse, really.

Once they see a rescuer, they go, "Oh, that's it, we've been saved,"

and then everything hits home and the situation can then deteriorate.

All of a sudden, I couldn't breathe. I couldn't see.

My arms were tingling.

I felt like my dry suit was suffocating me.

She's in a bit shocked.

Halfway across, she started pulling frantically at the neck seal,

so we gently prised the neoprene cover off her neck.

We just slit it with a knife, just so she could feel a bit at ease.

You've got to remember what they've been through.

Most of them are probably thinking that they're dying.

And they're going to die.

You've just got to keep reassuring them that everything will be OK.

I am right behind you, don't worry.

With the casualty's condition worsening,

a paramedic is winched down onto the lifeboat.

You feel like you're desperately trying to breathe normally.

But you can't do that, and you are gasping for air.

I'm just going to get the oxygen.

She was breathing really quickly, which you do in a panicked state.

Why am I not just calming down?

Why am I not just giving myself a slap and saying, "Come on,

"you're fine now. You're on the lifeboat, it's over.

"It's done."

Despite the team's efforts, Robyn's panic attack continues to escalate.

Gas and air can help reduce anxiety and regulate the breathing.

The more and more I panicked, and the more and more air I gasped for,

the worse and worse the pain got.

And it was...

so, so bad.

She had deteriorated and needed evacuating, really.

SHE CRIES OUT IN PAIN

I doubted very much she would even know where she was looking,

because her eyes were just going everywhere.

And you're trying to get her to focus at you, and just you and nothing else,

and then she would be off again, looking somewhere else, and you're going, "No, look at me, look at me.

"Everything will be OK."

I wouldn't have cared if it was Joe Bloggs piloting that helicopter.

SHE SCREAMS

As long as it was getting me to hospital

and getting me there quickly, I really couldn't have cared less.

When we arrived at hospital,

I can remember him turning round and smiling

and saying that he hoped I'd be OK.

Really, I'm glad he didn't want to stop and chat,

because I just wanted to go inside and be seen by the doctor.

Robyn had to spend a few hours in hospital being checked over...

..but was able to return home to her family later that day.

In Blackpool, despite strong winds blowing in from the Irish Sea,

a few tourists are still braving the beach.

PHONE BEEPS

A call comes in from the coastguard, alerting the crew that someone's

reported hearing shouts from the water near North Pier.

Three volunteers are scrambled to the rescue.

At the helm is electrician Darren,

who's been volunteering with the RNLI for more than 18 years.

Today, a force seven wind is whipping up two to three metre swells.

RADIO CHATTER

RADIO CHATTER

-Fucking hell!

-Whoa!

Helmsman Darren has not resurfaced.

But in danger of being knocked unconscious by the upturned boat,

there is little that crewmates Simon and Kyle can do to help him.

Every lifeboat crew carries a special red flare,

only to be used when their own lives are at risk.

When you see the red flare, you're in shit.

I have never seen a crewman fire a red flare off up until then.

As Sean and the crew of a second lifeboat race to their rescue,

Kyle and Simon are being washed

toward the metal structure of the pier.

As we pulled up to North Pier,

the crew were just coming under the pier.

We threw them a lifeline and pulled them in.

It was nice to get out of the sea.

You don't get any idea what it's like to actually capsize a boat.

Until the day that you do capsize a boat.

-It's not like in training, is it?

-No, nothing like training.

But I was still more concerned about Darren and where he was.

OVERLAPPING URGENT SHOUTING

When we saw Darren and he gave us the thumbs up, we thought,

thank God for that.

So...we know he's fine,

we just had to get the other boat to him as fast as possible.

We weren't expecting to rescue our own.

Is that the first time you've had to do that?

I have never experienced it in my time in my service on the lifeboat,

for 20 years and, hopefully, I won't experience it again.

Darren had become tangled in some rope...

..and was trapped underneath the boat

until another rogue wave fortuitously set him free.

Did you think you might die?

That was definitely... I could have drowned, yes.

He tried getting back onto the boat...

'The first thought when I was under the boat is,

'five or six minutes ago, I was watching Britain's Got Talent.'

It's just one extreme to the other. Relaxed, comfort, family...

under a boat, drowning, near death.

HE LAUGHS

I think it has brought us closer together,

because you are more aware of what can actually go wrong.

You are more cautious as well now.

The crew came dangerously close to disaster

and, on this occasion, the reports of someone in trouble in the water

turned out to be a false alarm.

-Why are you willing to risk your life?

-I don't know.

I have no idea. Someone said to me once, how much do you get paid?

And I said, "We do it for nothing."

Not only are the lifeboat crews giving up their time for free,

but with many of them working full-time,

they face the challenge of juggling

their volunteering and their day jobs.

In Abersoch, North Wales,

volunteer Alissa works as an employment solicitor.

The first couple of times I had shouts in the middle of the night

and then came in, I arrived at work looking like I had been dragged through a bush,

clutching coffee at one in the morning. Everyone is like, "What are you doing here?"

'Next time just call and say this has happened.'

He is really good about saying, "Just go and have some sleep."

We want to attract people who have that spirit of wanting to help.

We are extremely proud of Alissa.

She's very passionate about law, very passionate about her clients,

and certainly very passionate about helping people, so it's worked well.

Two months ago, Alissa took on an extra responsibility,

signing up for the flood rescue team.

I love the RNLI so much,

so, for me, the flood team seemed like the next natural step.

Something a bit different to what we do on the coast.

OK, guys, here we are.

The team was formed in the year 2000

to help provide a rapid emergency response

to incidents of serious flooding,

which are becoming increasingly common.

Calum, Alissa,

-take the Landy, with Guy?

-Cool.

Here are some of the scenes taken in Cumbria earlier on today.

Severe flooding is taking place.

The Met Office has issued a rare red weather warning,

the highest tier of warning for the potentially very heavy rain.

We have already seen over 100 millimetres of rain...

It is shortly before Christmas,

and the torrential rains have engulfed towns and villages

across Cumbria in flood water, which is rising by the hour.

The team head straight for the town of Kendal,

where the nearby River Kent has broken its banks.

'All roads around Keswick are blocked

'and badly affected by large areas of surface water.'

When I got there, I was speechless, really.

To see the level of the water, and the speed it was moving at.

It was nothing like I had ever experienced before.

You can almost see it rising before your eyes, and it is still raining.

You think, this is never going to stop.

-Do you worry about Alissa?

-Yeah, I do worry a lot about her.

There is an aspect of "What if?" you know, with the floods.

Everybody happy?

The volunteers need to begin a house-to-house search.

But every step is fraught with dangers.

-Everybody hold on together.

-Yeah.

We never know what is in front of us.

If the water doesn't take your feet from under you,

then the next log or the next bin,

or the next car that drifts downriver, will.

Manholes are the worst.

Manholes will lift under the pressure of water

and that will just leave a big, gaping hole in the floor

and it will actually pull you in.

How many people are in with you?

-Hello, mate. You all right?

-Stay there.

The crew are mid search

when news comes in that a pregnant woman and her family

are stranded in an isolated bungalow on the outskirts of town.

A family of six trapped in their house,

and the floodwater is only set to get worse.

Have you got some life jackets?

The bungalow is situated at the bottom of a gully

and the only access route has become a torrent of flood water.

The water was too fast-flowing, so our boats were effectively useless.

The one big piece of kit that we have got

for going in the water and we can't use it.

What is your name, mate?

-Blake.

-Nice to meet you, Blake.

'A local farmer came up to us and said,'

"I can drive you there."

It's not conventional, it's not orthodox, but we will give it a go.

The volunteers attach a rescue sled to the back of the tractor.

THe guy was hanging out the back window holding it,

because it would not fit in the cab.

To reach the bungalow,

they need to navigate down 300 metres of submerged lane.

Until the headlights of the tractor came round,

you just couldn't picture it.

Once it was illuminated, we looked and thought,

"Wow, this is pretty bad."

I was driving the tractor and it was very,

very fast-flowing water down the drive.

It was like a funnel, basically. It was sucking all the water in.

There's a lot of air in tractor tyres,

and the tractor could have been carried away by the current,

it was that strong.

Thanks to the farmer's help,

the volunteers have made it to the family's home.

Let's go, then.

'It was cold in the house. It was dark.'

There was a lot of noise with the running water.

It wasn't a pleasant place to be.

The pregnant woman and her partner

have had to climb onto the kitchen worktops to escape the rising water.

What is your name, Grandad?

Also in the house are the man's grandparents, both in their 70s.

And in a bedroom, two little boys aged five and three.

'The poor kids were stuck on the top bunk of their bunk beds'

and it was eight inches below their beds,

so they didn't have long at all.

You all right, mate?

INDISTINCT

They had been in there a very, very long time

with no electricity, no sanitation.

They'd even thought about breaking through the ceiling to see

if they can get up to the roof - it was that desperate.

The crew needs to ferry the casualties to the tractor

so they can be driven to higher ground.

But there is only room to take two people at a time.

We want to get all of these people out now.

We don't want to be prioritising people,

saying, "You have to wait, you are coming with us now."

But we had no other option.

They begin a relay to extract the family,

starting with the youngest child.

Hi, Jacob. How are you doing?

And his grandmother.

They must now wait for the tractor

to drop off the first casualties and return.

But all around them, the water level is continuing to rise.

With each trip, we can see that the water has risen inches again.

The situation is developing, it is developing quickly, and it's getting worse.

My legs were quickly getting tired,

and I was wading through much deeper water.

Next, they take the pregnant woman

and the five-year-old boy.

I am coming with you. I have got you.

OK, see you in a minute.

You can feel the tractor vibrating,

you can feel the water pushing this machine that weighs tons and tons.

You can feel it really moving.

We're saying to the tractor driver, "You know this machine,

"you tell us when it isn't safe any more and you can't come back."

Despite the dangers,

the farmer decides to risk another trip to rescue the grandad,

the father-to-be...

..and the family's two Labradors.

Good girl, good girl.

But the crew must still wait for their turn to be driven to safety.

Are you a good tractor driver?

HE CHUCKLES

I can drive a tractor.

I have done it for a lot of years.

It doesn't matter if I'm a crap tractor driver or a good tractor driver, I got the family out.

That was the important thing.

To see somebody's house torn apart, to see the whole family in distress,

is quite difficult. Home is everything.

It is your family, it is your kids, but it's how you make your home,

with all your personal belongings.

You put pictures of your family, your loved ones.

And once that's taken away from you, it is all gone.

You can't get those pictures back and it's got to be heartbreaking.

More than 45,000 homes were affected by the Cumbrian floods.

Hello?

In total, the flood rescue team came to the aid of more than 400 people.

OK, next.

'We mark the property'

to show ourselves and other agencies that the house has been cleared.

You start going down the flooded street and it's an eerie silence.

There's no kids on the streets, no cars passing by.

In fact, we are going over the tops of cars in our boats.

'If people stay in their properties,'

they're not able to call for help. Their phones are down, their mobile batteries go flat.

Communication in general is very, very difficult.

'We are talking to people as we evacuate them and they had just finished decorating their houses,'

or another family had just moved in thinking they would be in their new house before Christmas.

'When you see Christmas presents and photo albums floating out of houses, it is upsetting.'

Some of the most personal things that they have just gone.

This is definitely coming up. When we left, you could see the kerb.

It has completely gone now.

'I was brought up by the seaside. You know how the tide comes in.'

It slowly comes in, and the next wave is a bit nearer than the last.

That's what was like looking down the street.

It was just ebbing up, not down.

Just coming slowly towards you.

You didn't know where it was going to stop.

Some people didn't want to leave their properties,

and they don't want to be defeated by the flood water.

I wouldn't want to leave my home and all my belongings if I was in that situation.

Sometimes you've just got to say, "Listen, guys,

"we need you to come out of your house.

"We don't want to come back in six hours' time and find that you're

"now trapped upstairs and we can't get to you."

There is no water, they can't use their loos, there's no food,

there is no heating, and perhaps the thought of sleeping in a sports hall

isn't the most appealing.

-There was a lot of, shall we say, helping each other.

-Yeah.

There was a lady making tea in the morning.

People were bringing cups of tea.

She said, "Sometimes my electricity works and sometimes it doesn't."

'OK?'

'I think people like community more than they let on.'

Watch the step.

'When we are doing evacuations, there are people who didn't know their neighbours.'

But you'd think they were close friends within five minutes of being in the same rescue boat together.

'When adversity hits'

I think then people realise how important community is.

Give us the bags.

'And that actually, deep down, it is something that perhaps they crave as well.'

Cheers.

'There is a togetherness when you are being threatened.'

You come together, and you're all facing the same serious problem.

I think it has affected me.

I think I have taken something positive from it as well.

You add things to your own life with it then,

and hug your own family that bit tighter

and realise how lucky you are.

People tend to think nobody will do anything for nothing these days,

and the RNLI just goes to show that people will still volunteer.

People want to help.

I think, if it was not for people volunteering,

you'd have a hard job getting people to go to sea for money.

We are an island nation. There is water all the way around us.

There is always going to be somebody in trouble.

So, hopefully, there will always be a lifeboat service to save them.

Whoa!

Lindi, the lady who was pulled from the water after she swam out to sea,

is doing well and hasn't had a relapse for over a year.

I had a diagnosis and it was an adjustment disorder.

It is something that basically you can get through.

I think I am in a really good place, because I'm able to talk about it.

I think I am getting my confidence back up and, you know,

making plans for the future.

Robyn is still struggling to get over the experience of being caught in the tidal race.

It has definitely changed the way I think I deal with situations.

I am certainly a lot more nervous.

I hope in the future I can rebuild the confidence that I once had,

so that I can take Alfie on boats,

and he can love, as I did as a child,

the feeling of being in water.

Ann and the dogs suffered no lasting ill effects,

and still enjoy a walk on the beach.

I did think the very next day, when I woke up safely in my bed,

how I would have felt if I had not tried to save my dogs

and they had drowned, just because I had not attempted to save them.

Any dog owner would be able to relate to it.

There's no way I could have left them there.

You love them so dearly, they put all their trust in you.

The volunteers arranged a special Christmas present for the two young boys

they rescued from the floodwaters.

I've got one for you there, young man.

-BOY:

-I was scared and I was thinking that we would have to swim out.

Even I can't swim with no armbands.

I can only swim five metres with no armbands.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

A lifeboat person.