POURING rain, strong winds and loud claps of thunder called for nine local State Emergency Service volunteers to assist residents during the storms on Tuesday.
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SES region controller, Rick Sloman, said the first call for Moree was at 5.05pm.
“As Moree was the first to be hit we were able to alert neighbouring crews of what they were in for. The storm hit Moree at about 5pm and made its way to Inverell by 6pm,” he said.
The team in orange headed to their first call-out for the long night ahead and found surface water had entered a Moree home.
“The water dropped as the heavy rain disappeared but a lot of our calls were for leaking rooves and blocked gutters which caused back-flow for many homes,” he said.
Other call-outs saw branches fallen onto roads.
“One tree was hit by lightning and had split; we couldn’t really do anything about it so we just made sure everything was as safe as possible before we left. Another tree branch had fallen into power lines so we informed residents of what to do and what not to do before waiting for the electricians to fix the wires,” Mr Sloman said.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology Moree had received over 30mm of rain since 5pm on Tuesday.
Throughout the region, more than 40 volunteers worked right through until midnight on the ground and in the regional office.
“I think the big thing is that, yes we are in storm season, so it is important for residents to be storm ready. When the storm warnings are out there make sure loose items are secured on the property, gutters are cleaned and don’t park your cars under trees or where they can be damaged,” he said.
More information about being storm ready can be found here: www.ses.nsw.gov.au
“At the end of the day the SES people are volunteers and the more volunteers there are, the easier it is for everyone. Local businesses are fantastic and give so much leeway for the volunteers but we understand that its not always easy for people to just walk out of their jobs to go to an SES incident,” Mr Sloman said.
A range of skills such as computer, organisation, telephone handling, leadership, re-storing, communication and many more can help the SES.
“Our SES volunteers on the ground faced 98km winds, and our SES volunteers headquarters faced answering many calls and information gathering. Both elements are just as important as each other and both are needed to run the service.”