The Fire and Emergency New Zealand team with (4th L-R) SES Senior Manager Capability Ken Murphy, Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles, Member for Riverina Michael McCormack and Parkes Shire Mayor Ken Keith at the SES Headquarters in Parkes on Wednesday.
Deputy Incident Controller for the New Zealand team Gareth Hughes (left) showed acting Prime Minister Richard Marles a special Maori stone that they always take with them on special assignments. The stone is called pounamu and is a type of green stone which reminds them of home when they are deployed overseas.
Parkes has been turned into base camp as emergency services in NSW are facing the largest flood operation in the state’s history.
By Wednesday over 200 people had been rescued from floodwater and the State Emergency Service received more than 900 calls for help.
In addition to emergency services, the ADF has been based in town for about two weeks, while international volunteers arrived this week to assist with a flood rescue for the first time. A team of 12 from Fire and Emergency New Zealand arrived in Parkes on Tuesday, while another team of 12 from Singapore arrived yesterday.
Pioneer Oval is now a basecamp for the emergency services with a capacity of 100 personnel and includes a decontamination centre where crews can decontaminate upon return from the field. Northparkes Oval is being used as a temporary helicopter landing pad.
Ken Murphy, SES Senior Manager Capability and Incident Controller for the Lachlan Valley, said the base camp had a capacity to expand to 150 people, and would stay as long as the emergency services were operational in the area.
He said the New Zealand team had specialist skills around logistics management, resource management, planning and intel, while the Singapore team specialised in swift water rescue. A US team with specialist capability is also expected to join the operation.
Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles toured the flood affected Central West on Wednesday and met the New Zealand team at the SES office in Parkes. “We are really grateful for your assistance. My defence counterpart in NZ sent me a text message. Your government is very proud of the service you are providing to us.”
Ken said it was amazing how the team had hit the ground running not knowing the systems. He said the international teams would be staying for as long as they were needed. “We have ongoing arrangements to roll them over. This would allow us really good opportunities to share ideas and to look at policies and procedures and evaluate equipment, and help us with fatigue management for our crews.”
Following the flood event in Parkes on Monday, Ken said the rapid damage assessment teams were still busy getting to all the affected homes and would become part of moving towards the recovery phase.
The main focus was on Forbes, Condobolin and areas downstream in preparing for the flood and responding and working with the community.
“Our biggest message to the public is to comply with evacuation warnings, to be prepared when an evacuation order was issued, to have an evacuation kit ready with all the essential items, to consider pets and neighbours.” He also said people should under no circumstance enter flood water.