The worst floods to hit Victoria in over a decade caused substantial damage in District 15.
Operations Manager Phil Beasley was District 15 Duty Officer over the weekend.
“The main areas affected in D15 were the townships of Creswick and Clunes; we also held concerns about Carisbrook township which is soon to be part of D2 but is currently operational with D15,” he says.
According to Phil, CFA members in Creswick responded to an alarm at the local hospital and found that on their return to the fire station the motor room had flooded.
A local nursing home and around 100 residences were also affected by the rising waters.
“Essentially members in Creswick assisted the SES from 9.30am Saturday morning until around 10.30pm that night assisting people to move away from the flood waters,” he says.
A Divisional Command point was set up at the fire station offices and the response to Clunes and Creswick were managed from there.
“We had 60 CFA personnel involved over the weekend and also had incident management personnel at the SES ICC in Ballarat where we were liaising and managing the response activities,” Phil says.
“It’s not about boundaries and jurisdictions, it’s about our local communities being affected and everyone pitches in together,” Phil says.
He says that one of CFA’s real strengths lies in the fact that we have a strong community based, well-equipped membership who are able to support our local communities in any emergency.
“The Clunes township was more fortunate with the floodwaters and the brigade was proactive there as the SES resources were stretched in looking after Creswick.” Members assisted with traffic control, warning residents and providing situational updates.
Phil explains that the floodwater flowed through Creswick then downstream to Clunes and then Carisbrook near Maryborough via Tullaroop Reservoir.
Yesterday Phil and his colleagues drove around the towns to check out flood damage.
“Fortunately damage was minimal as the water rose and fell quickly which has minimised damage which could have been significantly worse if we were experiencing long term inundation. We are generally back at business as normal,” he says.
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