As Singleton and Maitland faced major flooding at the weekend, volunteer surf lifesavers stepped up to assist with rescue and relief efforts, too.
An evacuation order was issued to hundreds of residents along the Hunter River on Saturday, as rising waters threatened power and water services.
So, members from a number of surf life saving clubs in the Hunter Branch joined forces with the NSW State Emergency Service (SES) to deal with the issues.
That included duty officers, who are embedded in the Incident Control Centres to help resource and direct Surf Life Saving NSW assets including drones (UAVs) and Inflatable Rescue Boats (IRBs).
Two UAV teams from the Australian UAV Service conducted aerial surveillance, providing vital information to the SES to assist in their response to the rapidly-rising flood waters in Singleton.
For the first time, the drone vision was also “live-streamed” directly back to the big screens in the SLSNSW State Ops Centre.
Two IRB crews from Nobbys SLSC in Newcastle lent a hand in the Singleton area, as well, along with a crew from Stockton SLSC who was on standby in Maitland/Raymond Terrace.
The capability and agility of the UAVs has been shown to be a major asset for incident commanders, providing crucial real-time information and situational awareness.
“We can deploy our UAV operators quickly and, with minimal equipment and set-up, they can be feeding back a very clear picture of the situation in no time,” SLSNSW CEO Steve Pearce said.
“For the first time in an emergency incident, we have been able to link the camera feed directly back to our State Operations Centre in Sydney, where our duty officers can see exactly what the drone pilot is seeing, which is incredible.”
With the wild weather continuing to hammer NSW and flood risks imminent for rivers further north, volunteer callout teams and surf life saving assets will remain on standby over the coming week to respond if requested.
“I can’t thank our volunteers enough for answering the call to assist, bringing their skills and experience to an extremely challenging situation,” Me Pearce said.
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