- Title:
-
55 Years of Flood Rescue in New South Wales: The story so far, but what does the future hold for the next 50 years?
- Date:
- September 2010
- Organisations
- AFAC 2010 Conference
- Authors:
-
Peter Cinque & Keith Fitzgerald, NSW State Emergency Service
Stream 4
Download the presentation slides here. A summary is available from the link above. - Location:
- Australia, Australia
Overview
The period between 1945 and 1956 was characterised by a succession of large floods. In fact the genesis for the NSW SES was in the large scale flooding of 1955, where over 20,000 homes were affected and 25 people died. But in recent decades flooding in NSW, while a regular event, has not challenged the Service to the same extent as has been the case in international extreme flood events.
Recent large scale flooding operations in the US in 2005 and UK in 2007 have significantly challenged, and exposed capability gaps, in the conduct of their flood rescue operations. Nowhere have the challenges been greater or the capability gaps larger than in the area of mass flood rescue.
In New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina the United States Coast Guard alone reported undertaking 29, 000 airlift rescues. The Mumbai monsoon of 2005 and the UK Summer Floods of 2007 were also significant flood rescue challenges. In all of these countries, the authorities responsible for coordinating emergency response have learned lessons, but have those flood rescue lessons reached Australian shores?
The NSW SES has to deal with a wide variety of flood rescues during the course of a flood event. These rescues include:
- In the initial stages people driving or walking through flood waters
- As floodwaters extend over large areas people may be isolated or trapped on low flood islands, landlocked areas and flooded homes
- As floodwaters recede, people driving or walking through flood waters
The potential for large scale flood operations exists in NSW, and while much has been done in terms of mitigating the risk and preparing for effective flood operations, the potential for mass flood rescue continues where evacuation strategies may not be fully achieved. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Hawkesbury Nepean flood area of Sydney where over 60,000 people can be at risk. Given, Australia’s comparatively limited recent experience in mass flood rescue we must look to international experience in order that we continue to maintain capabilities linked to international standards.
To deal with this wide range of tasks a systems approach is needed. This paper briefly traces the development of the flood rescue capability in the NSW SES over the past 55 years. It examines the history of flood rescue in NSW, reviews the current situation, presents key challenges for the emergency services and for the community at large, and points to the future direction of flood rescue.
