It was a busy night on March 21 as the biggest storm in years tore through the Great Lakes region, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.
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After a mostly sleepless night, SES acting controller for Forster and Pacific Palms, William Dodd, and local controller for Mid Coast, Ben Matters were still far from finished, with a number of outstanding calls still to attend in the aftermath of the storm.
“Last night we had 44 RFA’s (requests for assistance), we had 42 just between 3pm and 10pm in mainly Forster and Tuncurry,” William said.
“A lot of those were sandbagging, a few tree jobs, we had two teams from the RFS and two teams from council doing the sandbagging for us, and we had three SES teams going, doing roof and tree jobs.”
“All outstanding calls will be attended today, which is about 18 jobs all up,” Ben added.
“We have an out of area team here from Penrith today, and another from Canterbury, and two of our SES crews all working to catch up with everything.”
In extreme weather situations, the SES volunteers, always on call, can be sure of a busy night or two, but William said it’s all about getting out there, getting the job done and getting home safely.
“We had a large deluge of rain coming in at different periods, which made it tricky,” he said.
“There were a few welfare checks to do last night, we had some trees coming down on houses. Teams are working this morning to get those trees cleaned up and out of the way as soon as possible to assess the damage underneath.”
The SES work tirelessly in the community year round, on call 24 hours a day, and the difference they make in the community is clear, but William insists it all comes down to having good help.
“We would really like to just highlight how great council and the RFS have been in this circumstance, between those two teams, they were really good and they got a lot done. A special thanks to Andrew Blatch, and Peter from council, and Ian from the RFS, their work is very much appreciated.”
“The most important thing for the community to remember is to stay safe when we have this sort of weather,” Ben said.
“It was a very busy, very wet night, and we want people to be safe, that’s the most important thing. When driving, remember, if it’s flooded, forget it.”
