LEETON’S State Emergency Service (SES) branch has been called on to assist in the clean up following the aftermath of severe storms in Sydney recently.
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Last weekend Leeton SES volunteer Richard Challinor travelled to Sydney with a composite crew from Junee to help in clean up efforts that were underway.
Leeton SES controller Bud Morris said volunteers from across the state had been called in to lend a hand.
“Sydney and that Central Coast area were just smashed,” he said.
“As of Sunday night the SES still had 5000 outstanding jobs.
“Richard went down Friday and came back about 9pm on Sunday.”
It was expected Mr Challinor would return back to the area this week along with various other volunteers from Leeton, depending on their work schedules.
The storms in the Sydney, Central Coast and Hunter regions resulted in death, damage and destruction.
It was further exacerbated by another storm on Saturday afternoon.
“The Bureau (of Meteorology) is also expecting another storm system to go through this weekend,” Mr Morris said.
“The volunteers in that area have been working non-stop … they’re pretty tired.
“There’s a lot to do, so we’re happy to send people to help where we can.
“I would like to thank the people that employee our volunteers for allowing them to have the time off work to go and help.
“It’s really great of them.”
The storms in Sydney brought with them heavy rain, gale-force winds and hail.
There were notable pictures circulating on Facebook last week, most of them photoshopped, of the storms.
However, there were incidents such as huge amounts of sand being washed into the skate park at Bondi Beach that weren’t doctored and depicted the storm’s ferocity.
The SES received more than 20,000 jobs since the storms hit last week.
Mr Morris said the volunteers were doing a great job.
“I know when Richard was there on the weekend they were doing a lot of cutting down of trees and getting dangerous ones away from homes … that sort of thing,” he said.
“There were so many calls that came in throughout the storm period.
“We were only too happy to have people from here help out.”
The SES offers plenty of helpful advice when it comes to preparing for a storm.
This advice is applicable across the state.
It includes maintaining your yard and balcony by securing or storing items that could blow around in strong winds and cleaning gutters, downpipes and drains regularly to prevent blockages.
