Red Cross forced to come to aid of flooded villagers as they use huge 4X4 to deliver basic supplies to families cut off in Somerset

The Red Cross started efforts to bring relief to flood victims in Somerset today, delivering basic supplies in a vehicle usually used in the aftermath of natural disasters in the developing world.

The 7.5-ton rescue vehicle waded through the mile-long stretch of floodwater which has surrounded Muchelney for the past four weeks carrying food and fuel for stranded residents.

It is the same model of four wheel-drive truck the Red Cross used in Indonesia in the aftermath of the Boxing Day tsunami which devastated parts of South East Asia in 2004.

This is the Red Cross Unimog 4x4 vehicle - more usually used in international humanitarian disasters - deployed in Somerset to deliver fuel to villagers in Muchelney, the village on the Somerset Levels which has been cut off by flooding since Christmas, leaving residents low on essential supplies

The 7.5-ton rescue vehicle waded through the mile-long stretch of floodwater surrounding Muchelney for the past four weeks to bring villagers urgently needed supplies

A team of 30 Red Cross volunteers today used it to deliver logs and coal to residents who were fast running out of supplies and only able to leave their village by boat.

The charity promised that it will be on hand to cart fuel, food, oxygen cylinders, portable toilets and any other heavy supplies needed by the stranded villagers until waters subside.

Muchelney resident Tineka Bradley, 43, had almost run out of fuel for the fire she had been using to keep her family warm when the volunteers arrived with supplies yesterday.

The single mother-of-two said: 'We were only putting the fire on for an hour a night to conserve fuel, and I am so grateful for the logs and fuel so I can get the house warm from when the kids get home from school.

'We were all having to cuddle up together in bed at night and wear lots of layers to keep warm.'

Ms Bradley's daughters - Gemma, 13, and Emily, ten - are forced to get a boat to and from school everyday. They are also finding it difficult to see their father, who lives in another village.

Ms Bradley added: 'It is all very worrying and constantly on my mind. It means a lot to get some help.'

A team of 30 Red Cross volunteers today used the Unimog to deliver logs and coal to residents who are only able to leave their village by boat

The charity promised that it will be on hand to cart fuel, food, oxygen cylinders, portable toilets and any other heavy supplies needed until waters subside

Tineke Bradley hugs Cheryl Murray, a British Red Cross emergency response volunteer, after she received bags of firewood. The single mother-of-two had only been able to use her fire for an hour each night - with her daughters forced to wear extra layers and huddle together in bed - because she had been running so low on fuel

Red Cross senior service manager Joanna Tennant said the vehicle - called a Unimog - will be kept in a nearby fire station.

'We anticipate the vehicle will be used by a team comprising staff from the fire service and the Red Cross,' she said.

'It could be transporting anything from oxygen cylinders to a patient who needs it to portaloos for communities where the water supply is cut off or contaminated.

'Supplies are also being taken into these communities by boat so the Unimog will be for those larger items.'

Sarah Gibson, operations director for the Red Cross in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset added: 'This tie-in between our international work and our work here in the UK is a great illustration of the fact that a crisis can happen anywhere, and to anyone.

'We want people to know that it's not the scale of the crisis or where it happens that matters but the impact on the people affected, and that's exactly why Red Cross volunteers are here to help.'

The Red Cross's relief efforts came as David Cameron today ordered river dredging to begin in flood-hit Somerset, as he said the government would do everything it could to alleviate the crisis, leaving the door open to sending in the army

The Prime Minister he warned he would not allow government in-fighting to hold up the work to remove silt and mud from riverbeds, although river levels are so high it is not currently safe to send in diggers.

It comes despite the Environment Agency refusing to accept responsibility for the ‘disaster area’, which the Commons was told has seen an area the size of Bristol left under water for a month.