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DUT’s Reynolds Helps In Rescue Operations During Violent Storm

DUT’s Reynolds Helps In Rescue Operations During Violent Storm

According to the statistics given by the Kwa-Zulu Natal Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Department, there were 32 fatalities and the number of deaths are said to continue to increase, following a violent storm that occurred in Durban from Monday night (22 April 2019), and continued into Tuesday morning, (23 April 2019).

Keanan Reynolds, who currently heads the technical and medical rescue at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) across all levels of the Bachelor of Health Sciences degree, was on hand to help out with rescue operations in and around Durban.

Without hesitation, Reynolds immediately became involved in rescue operations with the SAPS, SAR, Fire Rescue and Metro Rescue throughout the night. The rescue operation teams were under immense pressure to attend to dangerous emergency scenarios and act quickly and swiftly.

resue2“My role was to coordinate and plan the rescue strategies while answering directly to the incident command. We operated mostly in Chatsworth, and the damage was incredible. So much of Durban fell that night,” he said.

Reynolds said he helped with six rescue scenes in one night and the rescue operations started from 8pm on Monday night and ended at 11am on Tuesday morning, resulting in five live rescues. He said the challenges the rescuers faced were ongoing rains that made the mud super fluid and hard to control.

Reynolds also stated that there was a dire need for more technical rescuers in Kwa-Zulu Natal, as well as more training was necessary in Kwa-Zulu Natal in urban search and rescue (structural collapse and trench rescue) as well as flood water rescue.

“The rescues have pretty much stopped now with mostly body recoveries still going on,” he stressed.

 

Pictured: Rescue operations underway in Kwa-Zulu Natal.

Waheeda Peters

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