Rain and wind have battered the region over the past week or so. It is something that none of us have been able to escape.
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By no means is it the worst week of weather we have ever experienced and there is little doubt it won’t be the last bad weather we will experience in our lifetime. There are a few things that we need to acknowledge during these extreme circumstances.
The first is that we all need to taken action and care to ensure the impact of such wild weather is minimised. In simpler terms we need to batten down the hatches, secure anything on our properties that could get blown around, ensure our homes are water tight, rethink our travel plans and take care on the roads.
But perhaps the most essential acknowledgement should go to all the emergency service workers who are out about in the wild weather and are the front line of accidents, trauma and dangerous situations in any emergency event.
Sadly, one Illawarra State Emergency Service volunteer died while in the line of duty in the recent wild weather. This SES volunteer was with a crew removing a fallen tree when he collapsed and died. The circumstances behind his death are not yet known, but the fact remains that this man was out in the wild weather helping others right to the very end.
In the Southern Highlands region there are more than 100 SES volunteers. These volunteers attended 50 call outs during the windy conditions from November 23 to November 25. They then backed up on November 27 and 28 during the heavy rain that battered the region attending to 21 callouts.
They were on hand to clear trees from roads and houses, rescue people from flood waters and assist other emergency service operators such as police, fire brigade and ambulance officers at road crashes, clean-ups around damaged powerlines and more.
When you take into consideration the emergency service staff from the police, ambulance and fire brigades who also out risk their safety in wild, and often traumatic and dangerous conditions, that’s a lot of people putting their well-being and even lives on the line to ensure the safety of the broader community.
Too often we take these efforts for granted – some people even consider it an expectation. But while our emergency services operators, in many cases volunteers, are out protecting and rescuing the people in our community their families are at home fending for themeselves and living in hope their loved ones will return home safely from another day of risking life and limb.