Employees from Drax’s Galloway hydro power scheme rescued motorists after their vehicles got stuck in floodwater near the Glenlee Power Station on Tuesday evening, as a result of heavy rainfall which deluged local roads.
The first was a man in his 70s who had been stuck in his BMW car for over an hour on the A762 road between Glenlee Power Station and Earlstoun Power Station, when Robert Peacock and Daniel Hunter from Drax arrived on the scene at around 4pm, wading through chest deep water to reach the vehicle.
Robert Peacock, a mechanical fitter at Drax’s Galloway Hydro Scheme, said:
“It was just by chance we came across the elderly gentleman, but he had been stranded in his car in freezing water for an hour. We could not open the doors and ended up having to smash the rear window to gain access and drag him out. I think hypothermia would have set in soon, had we not got to him.”
Robert and Daniel transported the man to the Glenlee Power Station where they provided him with dry clothes to change into and a hot drink before taking him to an ambulance waiting on the other side of the floodwaters, which took him to hospital.The second incident involved a woman with a small child who were trapped inside a car, which had broken down in floodwater on the same road at around the same time. Another Drax team member Rob Little assisted them to safety.
Ian Kinnaird, Drax’s Head of Hydro said:
“The quick thinking of the teams at our power stations, their swift response and professionalism helped to prevent these serious incidents resulting in tragedy – we’re very proud of what they did and send our well wishes to the people who were trapped. In both these incidents a significant volume of water had entered the vehicles and the occupants were trapped.”
Glenlee Power Station, part of the Galloway Hydro Scheme owned by Drax
The Met Office had issued a yellow weather warning for the Galloway area, and SEPA had issued several flood warnings on Tuesday due to the volume of rainfall.
Drax’s Galloway hydro scheme produces enough flexible electricity to power more than 90,000 households and includes six power stations, eight dams and a network of tunnels, aqueducts and pipelines. The system helped to absorb some of the rainfall and provide a buffer preventing the flooding from being as severe as it could have been.
Commissioned in the mid-1930s, the Galloway Hydro Scheme was the first large-scale integrated hydro-electric complex to be built in Britain and consists of Glenlee Power Station, near St John’s Town of Dalr which is the nerve centre of the scheme, able to operate the other power stations at Kendoon, Carfad, Earlstoun and Tongland, remotely.
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