THE chairman of a disaster response charity has praised it’s volunteers following the work carried out in the Caribbean in the aftermath of hurricanes Maria and Irma.

Two months after their first touch down on the islands, disaster response charity Team Rubicon UK continues to work alongside local islanders, relief charities and organisations to help rebuild communities devastated by natural disasters.

Nick Parker, the chairman of the board at the charity who lives in Warminster has told the Wiltshire Times what a great job the team do, both on the islands and in the UK.

Sir Parker said: “I am very proud and my respect goes out to all our volunteers who are prepared to drop anything at a moments notice to fly out and help other people who are in a state of crisis.”

With wind speeds of up to 185mph, Hurricane Irma was the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic, and Team Rubicon UK had a team touchdown in the Caribbean within just 48 hours of the hurricane striking.

Since then 83 volunteers have helped communities across 7 separate islands.

Working alongside search and rescue charity Serve On, initial relief efforts were focused on the disaster-struck British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos, with other volunteers based in Antigua and Barbados to organise logistics and help funnel aid through the region.

Teams also visited Barbuda and Dominica to undertake vital assessments and relay back to specialised aid and rescue teams.

A lot of work is also done from the charity’s headquarters in Chilmark, where Westbury volunteer Bags Simmons works to keep the charity running.

Mr Simmons said: “As with any operation you need people on the ground in the UK to support and get behind those volunteers who have been deployed to the islands.

“We are able to liaise with other relief charities and make sure the operation is run smoothly, it’s all about working as a team.”

Team Rubicon UK’S most major achievements to date include 20km of routes cleared on Virgin Gorda, which is only 12km

squared, distributing 60,000 litres of purified water, delivering aid to over 6,500 beneficiaries, repairing 15 schools and 27 classrooms, and a total of 10,573 volunteer man-hours worked.