THE official storm season has come to an end and it has been a busy period for the NSW SES volunteers who have responded to more than 260 storm and flood jobs across Port Stephens.
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Volunteers from the Tomaree Unit at Corlette and the Port Stephens Unit at Raymond Terrace gave up their time from work and family to attend to tasks where trees were down or roofs were leaking or damaged.
The majority of requests for assistance were in the first week of January in response to heavy rainfall causing trees to come down and flash flooding across much of the area. The damage was widespread and crews attended jobs from Salamander Bay, Lemon Tree Passage, and Soldiers Point through to Medowie, Wallalong and Fern Bay. Major flooding on the Paterson and Williams Rivers caused isolation of rural communities, including Millers Forest, Wallalong, and Hinton for several days.
This was the second major flood event within 10 months, following last years ‘super storm’ in April. The severe weather event caught many unprepared, and the gale force winds and torrential rain brought it with a mass of destruction.
Thousands of trees down, homes and properties flooded and stranded residents and motorists kept the SES volunteers working around the clock for two weeks straight to complete over 1800 jobs.
Across the Hunter Region, over 8000 requests were received, making it the biggest response to any event since the inception of the service 60 years ago.
It has been one year since the super storm hit and is still fresh in many peoples’ minds. Now is a good time to make sure you are prepared and well stocked for future severe weather events even though the storm season has ended.
Storms can happen at any time so it’s important to prepare your home by maintaining yards and balconies, cleaning gutters, trimming overhanging branches, checking roofs are in good repair, preparing emergency kits and making emergency plans.
A little time taken in preparing can make all the difference between an inconvenience and a disaster.
The official storm season runs from October 1 to March 31 each year but the NSW SES is encouraging people to prepare their homes now to limit the amount of damage suffered in severe weather.
For more tips on how to be StormSafe visit stormsafe.com.au.