After prepositioning assets, including high clearance vehicles and aircraft, early last week ahead of forecast severe weather in remote parts of Western NSW, the NSW SES was able to quickly coordinate and respond to the call for help across the border.
Shortly after 1pm on Sunday, 1 March, NSW SES responded to the flood rescue of a person trapped in a truck on the Barrier Highway, approximately 20 kilometres south-west of Yunta in South Australia.
With an aircraft on standby, the NSW SES was able to quickly spring into action to assist SA SES.
Incident Controller, Superintendent Josh Clark said the successful rescue was the result of strong interagency collaboration and prepositioning assets early.
“Emergency response is borderless, and while this was on the South Australian side of the highway, the helicopter we had on standby was able to take off and get to the scene without being hindered by intense rainfall,” Chief Superintendent Clark said.
“The helicopter SA SES had on standby was unable to take off due to rainfall and crews couldn’t access it by road because of the floodwaters.
“This is an example of how the NSW SES has really increased operational capacity, interagency collaboration and planning in the last five years to bolster response capabilities.”
The LifeFlight helicopter was deployed to the scene from Broken Hill, flying 200 kilometres to successfully winch a male from the truck in fast flowing floodwaters.
The man was uninjured and was taken to accommodation by South Australian Police.
It comes as a timely reminder for people travelling through rural and remote parts of the state which have had significant rainfall in the past week, to never take the risk of driving through floodwaters.
“Out in the west it’s relatively flat and floodwater and pool and sit on roads and causeways for days, but it still poses a very real risk to drivers,” Superintendent Clark said.
“If people are driving through Western NSW, they should stay alert and never drive through floodwaters. That floodwater can be deeper than you think, and people have been caught out.”
About 129mm of rain was recorded at Yunta in the 24 hours to 9am on Sunday when the rescue was completed, marking a new daily rainfall record for the town.
The previous highest daily total at Yunta was 112mm in March 1950.