NEWS, COMMUNITY, RECREATION, FRIENDS & FAMILY | MUSWELLBROOK, SINGLETON & SURROUNDS

February 10, 2025 9:25 PM

Massive Storm Clean Up Continues

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It was a scary experience for Georgia and Josh Betteridge of Aberdeen when they saw a neighbours shed come over the fence and almost take out their own shed in last Wednesday’s storm. (Photo Georgia Betteridge)

BY JEM ANSHAW

Local State Emergency Service crews have worked night and day for almost a week responding to more than 2,600 calls for assistance since storms ravaged the region on Wednesday, January 15.

It was Superintendent Peter Keegan, deputy zone commander for the Hunter Valley SES, who was on call as an incident controller that night.

“We did have some pre-warning from the BOM about potential severe thunderstorms, so we did some pre-planning and put out some warning orders prior to that on Wednesday afternoon not expecting the severity of them, but at least we know that allowed us to be agile in our response,” he shared.

“We had a lot of trees down, power lines down, the bigger calls are significant structural damages to premises, roofs off, I believe a tree fell on the pub at Aberdeen.”

Of the 2,600 calls for assistance in the Hunter region, only 300 were left to attend on Sunday afternoon which is a testament to the SES led joint agency response that included the Rural Fire Service, Volunteer Rescue Association, and NSW Fire and Rescue crews on the ground responding to calls for assistance.

With many power lines downed by falling trees and power in general cut by the storm, power outages that followed posed another hindrance to crews working through the night and into the following days.

As of Monday morning, the SES were moving into their recovery phase, with Superintendent Keegan saying night shift crews were being stood down and they would be moving into a recovery phase.

“We work with Reconstruction Australia, and we have conversations with them working out how we help them to transition to recovery.”

“Damage assessments are done which require further assessment, structural damage means we need to come back to properties for a more comprehensive assessment.”

The sheer number of calls received makes this a mammoth task, and so far there are more than 1,000 premises that will need to be inspected further across the Upper Hunter.

On top of the storm response, SES crews in the Lower Hunter have attended seven flood rescue calls over the weekend, with crews from Singleton heading out to assist in Dungog where there was a heightened alert level.

“I’ve got to acknowledge the work of the volunteers, they have been operational since Wednesday night, they’ve had a huge task in front of them, and they’re just gone about it professionally and diligently, just getting in there and helping the community,” Superintendent Keegan said.

“It’s not uncommon for a volunteer to be out helping the community when their own house is under threat, and it’s not just SES, it’s all volunteers.”

POWER CUT

As of Tuesday, 300 properties were without power across the Hunter and Newcastle region.

Affected customers are spread across a large geographical area, but for reference, some of the areas include Stanhope, Lamington, Elderslie, Merriwa, Nulkaba, Wallaby Gully and Karuah.

Locals will see Ausgrid crews moving around, as well as our friends from Essential Energy, who were on jobs on Tuesday around Blackwells Park & Wallaby Gully, assisting Ausgrid to get as many customers back on as quickly and safely as possible.

FREE WASTE DISPOSAL

Meanwhile local councils have either discounted or removed fees associated with disposing of mixed and green waste as a result of the storm.

Residents in the storm-affected council areas of Cessnock, Maitland, Singleton, Muswellbrook and the Upper Hunter can now dispose of damaged items and storm debris at landfill sites without paying the waste levy fee.

The NSW Government has waived the waste levy until February 28 to support communities impacted by the severe thunderstorms as they rebuild and recover.

The waiver covers storm-related waste on public and private land, including damaged building materials, furniture, carpet, garden debris, food waste and other items.

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