WIDNES volunteers have signed up to help out in any disaster.

It follows a talk at Widnes Rotary Club about giving support to the emergency services when people have to be moved from their homes to a rest centre.

Trained volunteers are called to help local authority care managers to perform a variety of administrative and logistical tasks.

The Rotary Community Emergency Support Volunteer project enables volunteers to assist frontline emergency services in the event of a major incident, such as a fire or explosion.

These duties can include car parking management, securing luggage and requesting or collecting consumables such as foodstuffs from supermarkets.

Once trained, Rotarians can be called at any time and deployments can last for up to four hours.

Widnes Rotary Club president Malcolm Howell said: ““Hopefully, our services will not be required very often, but the floods of recent weeks remind us that misfortune can strike any community at any time.

“If help is needed and we are asked to assist, then we shall respond.”