Hours into his second shift in less than a day, Kiama SES volunteer Ben Jackson received a call-out that saw him and three others paddle a raft four kilometres one way in a desperate bid to help two people and their animals as flood waters closed in around their property.
Mr Jackson, a 22-year-old flood technician for the SES, had spent the day helping fill sandbags to protect homes, before heading home for a few hours rest and then back out to continue helping the community.
He and three others had been out all night doing flood rescues when they got a call from Bolong Rd, near the flooded Shoalhaven River, where there were two people, five horses and four dogs that needed assistance.
“We started heading down, and we’d come in from the northern side of the road, the water had already come up quite a bit from the night – about 1.4-1.5m at its deepest,” Mr Jackson told NCA NewsWire.
When the group hit water too deep for them to drive through, they pulled out their Arkangel raft and began paddling the rest of the way.
“We estimated it was about 4km of constant paddling just one way, so it took us a while,” he said.
“One of the flood techs we had on board has been doing it for about 10 years and he reckons that’s the longest he’s ever had to paddle.”
Mr Jackson and his team eventually arrived at the property, and began to assess the damage. He said the owners were in good spirits, but water was fast approaching the house.
As the team did their assessments, flooding on the southern side of the property began to drop, meaning the SES could bring a horse float in to help, saving the trio from having to walk the horses out of the water – but they still had to paddle 4km back to the car.
The level of flooding at Shoalhaven over the weekend and into Monday has not been seen in the area since 1991.
Just after 12pm on Monday, the Shoalhaven River at Nowra was peaking about 3.98 metres, while at Terara the water was about 3.71m.
An evacuation order remains in place in the area.
Nowra recorded 73mm of rain in just 24 hours, Kiama recorded 50mm and Ulladulla saw 30mm.
The SES has received nearly 2,000 calls for help across the state as of 7pm on Friday, with 1162 of those in the 24 hours up to about 1pm on Monday.
Disappointingly, volunteers have been called to 40 flood rescues, 21 over the past 24 hours.
A spokeswoman for SES told NCA NewsWire the main message from the emergency service was for people to stay out of the floor water.
“Never, never, never, drive walk or ride through flood water,” she said, noting not only could it be dangerous in terms of depth and current, but that the water often contained sewage, chemicals and debris that could be harmful.
When Mr Jackson finally arrived home on Monday, he had a quick sleep and then sat down to do some work for his university degree in IT.
“I might go back out tonight,” he said. “It depends on the level of flooding.”
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMinAFodHRwczovL3d3dy5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9uYXRpb25hbC9icmVha2luZy1uZXdzL3Nlcy12b2x1bnRlZXJzLXBhZGRsZS00a20tb25lLXdheS10by1oZWxwLXNhdmUtaG9yc2VzLWRvZ3MtcGVvcGxlL25ld3Mtc3RvcnkvZDdkMWI2OTk3M2M5Y2U0NmRlMzA5MGM1M2RiMDg3NzHSAZwBaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAubmV3cy5jb20uYXUvbmF0aW9uYWwvYnJlYWtpbmctbmV3cy9zZXMtdm9sdW50ZWVycy1wYWRkbGUtNGttLW9uZS13YXktdG8taGVscC1zYXZlLWhvcnNlcy1kb2dzLXBlb3BsZS9uZXdzLXN0b3J5L2Q3ZDFiNjk5NzNjOWNlNDZkZTMwOTBjNTNkYjA4Nzcx?oc=5
2020-08-10 05:52:30Z
CBMinAFodHRwczovL3d3dy5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9uYXRpb25hbC9icmVha2luZy1uZXdzL3Nlcy12b2x1bnRlZXJzLXBhZGRsZS00a20tb25lLXdheS10by1oZWxwLXNhdmUtaG9yc2VzLWRvZ3MtcGVvcGxlL25ld3Mtc3RvcnkvZDdkMWI2OTk3M2M5Y2U0NmRlMzA5MGM1M2RiMDg3NzHSAZwBaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAubmV3cy5jb20uYXUvbmF0aW9uYWwvYnJlYWtpbmctbmV3cy9zZXMtdm9sdW50ZWVycy1wYWRkbGUtNGttLW9uZS13YXktdG8taGVscC1zYXZlLWhvcnNlcy1kb2dzLXBlb3BsZS9uZXdzLXN0b3J5L2Q3ZDFiNjk5NzNjOWNlNDZkZTMwOTBjNTNkYjA4Nzcx
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "NSW Flooding: SES volunteers paddle 4km one way to rescue couple, horses, dogs - NEWS.com.au"
Post a Comment