AN ABERSOCH RNLI volunteer has described the emotional moment a vulnerable elderly couple thanked her for saving their lives during the devastating floods in Cumbria.

Elissa Thursfield, 28, was part of the RNLI Flood Rescue Team volunteers who joined emergency services from across the country to help people caught up in the floods, brought on by Storm Desmond.

Joining her from the area was also Bryn Ellis from Pwllheli RNLI and Paul Filby from Criccieth RNLI.

The RNLI volunteers were operating in Carlisle, Cockermouth and Kendal and helped evacuate hundreds of people from their homes over the weekend.

Amongst the people evacuated by the Welsh RNLI Flood Rescue Team volunteers were children, pensioners, pregnant women and pets – including a Great Dane.

Elissa, who is a trained flood rescue volunteer, said it had been an extremely emotional and physical experience.

She said: “There were many elderly people and children who were scared and cold but we all worked very hard in bringing them to safety.

“There were many things which I saw that really tugged on my heart strings, but one thing that will stay with me from my time volunteering there was when we rescued an elderly couple from their home and once we got them to safety the elderly lady was squeezing my hand and thanked us for saving them – that really brought a lump to my throat.”

Elissa added: “This was my first deployment after training with the flood rescue team for just over a year, so it was a completely new experience for me.

“The conditions were a lot worse than what you saw on the television, the damage the floods had caused was devastating.

“We were working in very difficult conditions with the relentless rain and the water levels were just horrendous.

“The RNLI flood team were working day and night to help evacuate people from their homes, everyone worked incredibly hard, it was very physical work and very emotional at the same time.”

Criccieth RNLI has also been sharing their volunteer, Phil’s, experience of the floods through social media.

In the posts, he said: “After 36 hours in, there were still casualties being evacuated, we saw eight to 10 feet of water in places.

“Twelve rescue teams from many different emergency services all worked together and checked and evacuated around 1,000 properties in an area of Carlisle alone.

“It really was a fantastic team effo­rt and heartfelt thanks must go to the residents of Cumbria, both affected and not, who showed wonderful resilience and support throughout.”

The three volunteers from the Dwyfor area left Cumbria on Tuesday afternoon and returned back to their stations.

Elissa, who works for Gamlins Law in Rhyl, has praised the RNLI Flood Rescue Team for their efforts in extremely tough conditions and the rest of the emergency services who were part of the rescue mission over the weekend.

She added: “All the emergency services did an amazing job, we worked with many different teams such as the fire service, mountain rescue and the RSPCA who all did what they could to get people and animals to safety as quickly as possible in incredibly tough conditions.

“I’m also grateful to my empl­oyer who allowed me to go to Cumbria at the drop of a hat and didn’t give me a timescale on when I needed to be back.

“We are volunteers with the RNLI and it’s fantastic that we have such supportive employers that appreciate we can be called away at short notice and I’d like to thank them for that.”