A SERIES of storms around Bathurst in recent days has increased the workload for local State Emergency Service (SES) crews, who have been assisting with fallen trees and flash flooding.
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Rescue officer Zeak Smith said Sunday night’s storms didn’t lead to major incidents for the SES, but there was a flooding event at Peel that scattered debris over the road.
“Two SES crews attended Peel and cleared the road and monitored the flooding to make sure no one got stuck,” he said.
In the previous week, however, there were 18 jobs requiring SES assistance.
They ranged from leaking roofs to fallen trees, including an incident in George Street on Saturday with a tree down on a two storey building.
“We had a very experienced crew working on it and they set up a safety system on the job,” Mr Smith said.
“They started at the top and worked their way down.”
That same day there was a power outage impacting homes and businesses near the central business district, with nearly 1500 customers impacted.
Mr Smith said there was almost a serious flooding event last week as well.
“We had some flooding come through from Georges Plains. The gauge got to 3.52 (metres) and at 4.1 in Georges Plains we get flooding to homes in Perthville,” he said.
“As the water rose, we prepared with the RFS (Rural Fire Service) to do some door-knocking.”
Mr Smith said that thankfully the water stopped just short of 4.1 and a serious incident was avoided.
With more rain and storms forecast for Bathurst this week, the SES has started preparing in anticipation of calls for assistance.
Incidents can be reported by calling 13 25 00.
