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Sydney
Storms |
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In
April 1999 severe hailstorms hit Sydney, causing an incredible amount
of damage to property including severe damage to large numbers of roofs
in the southern suburbs. Rural Fire Service volunteers from all over the
state were employed in providing emergency tarpaulin protection for damaged
roofs. This incident not only demonstrates the diverse types of emergency
work that Rural Fire Service volunteers now undertake, it represented
a major job of logistics and co-ordination for the service administration. |
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A
panoramic across one badly hit area, showing the numbers of damaged rooftops. |
| Murray
Stoll, Charles Gibson, Andrew Todd, Eddy Tillotson, Arvid Pluschke, Brendan
Haverfield and Andrew Barrett from the Sutton brigade all did stints up in Sydney
between the 19th and 29th of April. In fact, in the course of four contingents
that were sent up, some went more than once. While some of the work involved
climbing around on roofs fastening down tarpaulins, there was a certain amount
of plain doorknocking involved. Door to door enquiries were carried out to ascertain
the extent of the damage and to ensure that people knew they could get emergency
work done. The amount of damage to some houses was incredible from their reports,
and the inhabitants were a bit shook up, but the volunteers said they were offered
plenty of coffee and bikkies from the residents who were aware that they were
doing this on their own time. Congratulations to all those young people who
put in the effort to do a bit outside their own community. |
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Some
volunteers work on roofs while others talk to residents in one of the battered
streets. |
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