AFAC25 Enhancement of flood rescue in NSW
NSW SES was tasked to coordinate and drive the implementation of recommendations from the NSW State Rescue Board following the inquiry, and lift flood response capability across all emergency service organisations (ESOs). To this end NSW SES established a Flood Rescue Enhancement Program (FREP) to ensure a timely delivery of outcomes to bolster flood rescue capabilities and coordination.
By Aapo Skorulis
Following the catastrophic floods in early 2022, the NSW Government commissioned an independent inquiry into the preparation for, causes of, response to and recovery from floods.
NSW SES was tasked to coordinate and drive the implementation of recommendations from the NSW State Rescue Board following the inquiry, and lift flood response capability across all emergency service organisations (ESOs). To this end NSW SES established a Flood Rescue Enhancement Program (FREP) to ensure a timely delivery of outcomes to bolster flood rescue capabilities and coordination.
This involved bringing together all ESOs in NSW to ensure that a coordinated, consistent and collaborative approach was applied in the development of responses and that enhancements were unanimously accepted and operationalised.
FREP delivered key enhancements to the NSW State Rescue Policy (SRP), including clarification of definitions, updating the flood rescue risk matrix and identification of flood rescue equipment. Through this co-development of the SRP, there is now shared understanding across all NSW ESOs regarding the response arrangements for flood rescue vs flood support and that NSW SES is the combat agency for flood.
Internally in NSW SES, FREP developed doctrine and tools to ensure a consistent approach to the agency’s preparedness for flood rescue response. Across the agency, members have an improved understanding of both their and the agency’s role in flood rescue. Other enhancements include:
• additional flood rescue coordinators and support officers, with full-time staff established in all zones
• additional vehicles, vessels, equipment and facilities to better support flood rescue operations
• updates to the NSW SES incident control system for improved functionality and responsiveness for flood rescue
• introduction of a new online tool for Incident Controllers to determine when a significant and coordinated response is required to mitigate risks via the declaration of a Flood Recue Area of Operation.