VOLUNTEERS are being sought to help people in their local community should crisis occur in high-risk flood coastal communities in Gwynedd.

The British Red Cross in Wales has launched a campaign to recruit hundreds of volunteers willing to drop everything during a major emergency.

When disaster hits, community reserve volunteers will form a practical taskforce, working as a team to do anything from filling sandbags to sorting food for a community affected by fire.

It is hoped the new teams will be able to provide valuable help in the event of flooding, heavy snowfall or something more sinister.

Communities that have been identified as being at risk of flooding, such as Fairbourne, have been building up their resilience to emergencies in recent years and the Red Cross recently took part in a North Wales Resilience Forum exercise in relation to the village.

It takes 10 minutes to sign up as a community reserve volunteer, and volunteers will then be called out by text when they are needed.

Simon Lewis, head of crisis response for the Red Cross, said: “We’ve seen through the sad events of this year, including the Manchester Arena and London Bridge attacks and the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy, the extraordinary levels of compassion that is shown by ordinary people from local communities, when a crisis hits.

“It shows you don’t need special skills to help others. Small acts of kindness, and coming together as a team, can make a huge difference.

“This project is a way of harnessing the goodwill and kindness of the public for future emergencies, by signing people up in advance.

“We recognise people have busy lives and can’t always commit to volunteering all year round.

“We would only call upon people at times of major local crisis, which hopefully won’t happen often, but when they do, and extra help is needed, people will have the opportunity to make a big difference.

“There are many different ways of helping your community but this is a new one.”

People can sign up online at www.redcross.org.uk/reserves by watching a short video, answering some quick questions and registering their details.

Modelled on similar initiatives run by the Dutch and Austrian Red Cross the new volunteering initiative aims to recruit 10,000 community reserve volunteers nationwide by November 2019, targeting areas most prone to flooding and weather-related emergencies first, in order to have teams in place this winter.

Mr Lewis added: “When a crisis hits the Red Cross has established agreements with local councils and the emergency services, who call us to ask for our help.

“Once we have a team of community reserve volunteers in place, we will work with our partners before and during emergencies to identify key tasks the new volunteer teams could do, to help those affected.”

Volunteers must be over 18, have a mobile phone and be prepared to carry out practical tasks during an emergency.