Rural Fire Service (RFS) teams are heading to the Northern Rivers from throughout the state to help with the clean up and a group of at least 16 vehicles are heading to South Murwillumbah.
RFS volunteers from Glen Innes, Stienbrook, Dundee, Deepwater, Duma, Bonville, Mullaway, Coramba and other RFS stations are making trip, in some cases over 1,000km, to help. The convoy drove north on the M1 today at about 11am. There were approximately 12 vehicles and another four 4WDs as part of this convoy.
‘Our region has gone through a catastrophic disaster that has only made clearer why we all love living here despite it: the sense of community is phenomenal. But it’s not just how supportive we are to each other, it’s also how quickly we have self-organised to respond to urgent needs. Residents have spontaneously gathered to key places and set up ways to help the most vulnerable, evacuate people in danger from remote locations, build makeshift bridges in a determined, but also compassionate way. This is a lesson we will learn from for many years to come,’ said Jean Renouf from Resilient Byron.
‘At Resilient Byron, we’ve activated the networks we had been building for the past two years, relied on residents whom we previously trained in community resilience, managed or guided volunteers for clean-up and door knocks in different places around the Byron Shire, distributed all sorts of goods to those who need it day and night, coordinated with many other community members helicopter rescues and resupplies for residents stranded in the hill, as well as team missions up-hill, liaised with SES, Fire and Rescue NSW, Byron Shire council, Australian Defence Force, etc. on a daily basis, liaised with local and national media, etc.’
Any support you can give will allow us to continue doing so: https://www.resilientbyron.org/donate.
A multi-agency team including 400 personnel, helicopters, and equipment is being mobilised to help the clean-up effort following extreme floods across northern NSW says the Minister for Emergency Services and Resilience Steph Cooke.
‘We are doing everything in our power to kickstart the clean-up effort, beginning today in the Northern Rivers region now that the all-clear has been issued by the NSW State Emergency Service,’ Ms Cooke said.
‘The immense scale of the flooding is unprecedented and we are putting equally unprecedented resources into the significant clean-up and long-term recovery effort.’
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