The Bega Valley SES Unit has had a busy week, having received over 100 calls for emergency assistance from Sunday March 21 to Wednesday March 24.
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The vast majority of those calls were received on Tuesday March 25, with 74 calls coming in that day alone.
"We had about 53 of our local volunteers from across Bega, Eden and Bermagui on deck," said Michelle De Friskbom, the local commander for the Sapphire Coast.
Even though Bega Valley Units had the assistance of Fire Rescue Victoria, whose flood rescue technicians came to help out in the area, Michelle said the team was still under immense pressure as many of the reinforcements didn't arrive until early Wednesday morning.
"We were stretched and we covered such a wide area. Unlike in metropolitan areas like in Sydney, even though you don't see an SES unit on every intersection there, you can usually have someone on a job pretty quickly.
"But out here we are rural and the job times vary because you might spend 40 or so minutes there and back just in driving distances."
- Michelle De Friskbom, Local Commander for the Sapphire Coast
Flood rescue teams are able to get to jobs significantly faster due the use of sirens and flashing lights, but Michelle said the unit received 10 flood rescue calls which was a considerable number.
"That amount of flood rescues are rare for us. Generally our community is really well behaved when responding to floods, but some of them got caught off guard due to the speed of the water rising between 10 and 11pm.
"We were very lucky because we did manage to get three or four operators at each of those rescues."
On flood rescue missions, Michelle explained there must always be at least two people in wetsuits if it was a water mission they were carrying out, and then another two people in the boat team.
Oftentimes there are also people who are trained to assist with on-land rescues or to direct water teams on a mission if numbers were sufficient.
One such rescue mission involving a two person boat rescue team was at Tinpot where a man and his daughter had become stranded after crossing a creek earlier in the day.
"He was intending on a different route back, but there were trees down so he couldn't go that way when he tried to return.
"He was very thankful, maybe a little bit embarrassed but he did the right thing. It's better to do a flood rescue than retrieving a car from floodwater," said Michelle.
"We got through it which was really good, the community was excellent and they headed all the warnings.
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