VICSES crews fly north to support flood response

VICSES crews fly north to support flood response

06/07/2022, 9:24 AM

Victoria State Emergency Service (VICSES) volunteers will this morning depart Victoria to support flood affected communities in New South Wales.

The taskforce is made up of 26 VICSES members, 18 of whom touched down in Newcastle on Wednesday morning and are expected to work in the Gosford area later today supporting and relieving local NSW SES crews with the flood and storm response. The remaing eight members will join them later on Wednesday. 

This contingent adds to the nine Incident Management Team (IMT) personnel from VICSES, CFA and EMV who departed over the weekend and are working within Incident Control Centres at Rhodes, Metford and Wollongong.

On Tuesday, the New South Wales State Emergency Service (NSWSES) requested on the ground support from Victoria through the State Control Centre, with the first VICSES general rescue taskforce departing Melbourne Airport this morning.

The contingent of four crews of four people each is made up of VICSES volunteers from across the Grampians, Southwest, Gippsland, and metropolitan Melbourne regions across Victoria.

The crews will work for four days (Wednesday – Saturday) before travelling home on Sunday (10th).

Emergency Management Victoria (EMV) is coordinating Victoria’s multi-agency requests with the National Resource Sharing Centre (NRSC).

In March and April 2022, around 200 VICSES volunteers and staff were deployed to assist in NSW. NSW SES crews returned the favour in early November 2021 travelling to Victoria following the significant storms in late October.

Quotes attributable to VICSES Chief Officer, Tim Wiebusch:

“We have a strong and ongoing commitment with our counterparts’ interstate, and we will do whatever we can to assist”.

“Our volunteers have once again answered the call, leaving work and family commitments behind to assist the flooding situation in NSW. We thank those volunteers who are assisting, and also send our thanks to their employers who have released them for deployment at short notice”.

VICSES volunteers departing Victoria to support flood affected communities in New South Wales