SES assist residents on Far South Coast with heavy rainfall, severe weather warnings, and hazardous surf conditions

On Wednesday, November 29, SES units from Bega, Eden and Bermagui received more than 100 requests for assistance, and as of the evening, all but 15 requests had been completed.

Ms De Friskbom said the NSW RFS Far South Coast team provided a number of chainsaw crews to assist, which allowed the SES to focus on floods, while the RFS worked to clear fallen trees.

"[There were] no flood rescues, so a big thank you to our community for listening to the advice from the SES.

"The requests for assistance we've had had been for sandbagging for flooding, for roof jobs [with] leaking roofs, trees down on to roofs, trees down on roads," Ms De Friskbom said.

The Far South Coast received further assistance from outside the area, which included two flood rescue crews from metro areas and a storm crew from Wollongong, an RFS Strike Team, and a Unimog high-clearance vehicle for extreme terrain.

After the SES released its 'Watch and Act' Wednesday night, November 29, SES teams door knocked to advise Bega residents of the change in the alert level.

Ms De Friskbom also suggested the community download the 'Hazards near me' app for updates to keep informed regarding floods and bushfires, with advice on what to do to stay safe.

A number of bridges, causeways and roads had completely washed out from underneath, so Ms De Friskbom said it was important for residents to "drive to the conditions", not to drive around road closed signage, and stressed the seriousness of not driving through floodwaters due to unseen risks.

"Even though you might see a depth gauge on the side of the road that might say it's only 300mm over the road, you don't know if the road still exists anywhere within that," Ms De Friskbom said.

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"Even though you drive on that road however many times a day and you think that you know the road with the weather, especially with the downpour we had yesterday, you just don't know what's happening with that road underneath.

"We got the whole lot yesterday, we got severe weather warnings for heavy rainfall, we got thunderstorm warnings, we got hazardous surf warnings...marine wind warnings, flood warnings as well.

"We remain vigilant today, like I said, there's more rain forecast, we're just not sure what it's going to look like yet," she said.

For flood and storm assistance, SES can be contacted on 132 500, and life threatening emergencies dial 000 (Triple Zero).

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