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The company announced that four of its Fastrac tractors equipped with trailers and two backhoe loaders were being despatched to the worst-affected areas. The Fastrac tractors will be deployed in areas where people and livestock need moving from advancing flood waters. The JCB backhoe will be used in shoring up flood defences and eventually in clearing debris left by the flood waters.
JCB has already supplied a 541-70 Loadall telescopic handler to support farmers who have been left without feed and bedding for livestock evacuated to dry land from flood hit areas. The machine is being used to load donated forage onto trucks at Sedgemore Cattle Auction in Somerset where the distribution is being co-ordinated.
JCB chairman Lord Bamford said: “The scale of the floods and the anguish being caused is devastating for all concerned. As Britain’s biggest manufacturer of construction equipment we are in a position to provide machinery quickly to help families and farmers who are suffering so dreadfully through the floods. It’s my hope that the JCB machines we’re providing will help alleviate that suffering.”
The machines were shipped yesterday from JCB’s headquarters in Rocester, Staffordshire, and will be operated by drivers provided by the Construction Industry Training Board.
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