Local firefighters fly flag on storm front

A LOCAL emergency service contingent dropped into the middle of the devastating New Year’s storms on the Gold Coast returned as heroes at the weekend, having worked to protect and save thousands of livelihoods in the area. Arriving on day five of the major storm cell, which is expected to cost the Queensland Government around $2b in repairs, Chiltern CFA members Elizabeth Gill and Peter Hooper, as well as emergency service members from Yackandandah and Baranduda, were buffeted by 402mm of rain on just their second day in the Mount Tamborine community. The crew spent three days on the ground, assisting residents to minimise the scale of their damage, as emergency service members across the state responded to 4200 calls for assistance in a single week. “We were soaked by lunchtime, standing outside putting tarps over things,” Ms Gill recalled. “It was just unrelentingly wet – once you’re completely soaked through it just doesn’t seem to bother you as much because you can’t get any wetter, and it doesn’t matter how wet we are because the people we were helping were trying to cope with that amount of wet coming through their garage or their lounge room. “There were elderly people and people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities and you needed to be aware of people’s need to talk, and not everybody’s capable of picking up the phone and saying they need the SES’ help because they’ve got this problem. “So it was about loitering with intent a little bit to try and make those connections as well, and being able to give them the phone numbers to ring to get themselves on the list for specific help from the SES and the support services. “(We were helping) a lot of people who just don’t understand how to respond in emergency situations.” Recruited for her first deployment having recently completed specialised safe working at heights training, Ms Gill said the team had spent three exhausting days working on residential rooves and placing sandbags in the area in trying conditions, which also included sweltering heat. An estimated 1000 homes and businesses are believed to have been impacted by the storm, with the Australian Defence Force mobilised earlier this week to support local emergency providers. “There was an article on the ABC website saying it was going to take years to address the storm damage from just this set of storms, and from what I saw that is absolutely correct,” Ms Gill said. “We’re not builders, we’re not there to actually fix the problems from a structural perspective, but we’re there to remediate and prevent further damage and make things safe. “By the time we got there it was day five (of the weather event) so the huge amount of branches and trees that were on roads had been moved off roads, and the local units were pretty exhausted by the time we got there, so they were pleased to go home to their own beds.” Ms Gill said 40 CFA members from across Victoria had travelled as part of the deployment, with fellow brigade member Mr Hooper an important support throughout. “He deserves a huge accolade as well because he’s the type who just does stuff, doesn’t expect anything for it but just gets in and does it and he’s amazing to have on your team.”

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