Eugowra SES takes delivery of rescue boat, storm trailer

Eugowra's State Emergency Service unit has taken delivery of a new rescue boat and storm trailer. Volunteers were on hand to receive the keys to the Gemini inflatable rescue boat from NSW Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib, with Senator Jenny McAllister and Member for Orange Philip Donato. Mr Donato said Eugowra's new rescue boat would allow SES volunteers to undertake flood rescue: they are equipped with a range of life jackets, as well as reconnaissance and support tasks. "SES volunteers make a valuable contribution to our local community and many across the region were busy working during the floods in 2022," he said. "These additional vehicles and vessels delivered across the local region will goa long way in helping prepare and respond to emergencies. Colin Malone, Assistant Commissioner NSW SES, said the the boat had been co-designed with the organisation's volunteers and selected for the type of conditions Eugowra has experienced in the past. "It's been many eyars of work going into developing these assets," he said. "There's a lot of special features in this boat that have been codesigned by our volunteers, with our fleet team, and with the engineers at the boat companies. "It's been purposely built to handle the environment we're standing in, to handle the type of flooding we may see in this area again and that has happened in the past." Mr Malone acknowledged the volunteers who will in coming weeks be training to use the boat. "A lot of these people joined the unit off the back of the catastrophic flooding that happened here," he said "So that crucible moment brought the community together a... and they're still growing out of it today. "Thank you to our amazing volunteers." Eugowra and Canowindra also received new 'ark angel', an inflatable rescue raft critical for quick and efficient flood response as they can be transported on top of an operational vehicle. All the new vehicles are equipped with 'vehicle as a node' technology, allowing crews to communicate using 4G and satellite networks in additional to regular radio networks, helping crews stay connected during emergencies. Mr Dib said it was fantastic to hand over the boat - and other equipment - to the Eugowra unit to equip volunteers for the future. "The bravery and selflessness over our SES volunteers over recent years has been remarkable, and during the last storm season alone they responded to almost 16,000 flood and storm incidents across the state," he said. In 2022 NSW SES volunteers logged more than one million hours and completed more than 3800 flood rescues, 67,000 animal rescues, 2800 resupply missions and 628 medical resupply missions. Nearly 3000 new volunteers joined the ranks of the SES in the past year, and the service continues to encourage more people to join their local unit to further strengthen the state's response to storms and floods. "To our volunteers, thank you for all you do, thank you for giving up your time, for putting yourself in danger and making sure you protect the community: it takes a special kind of person to volunteer and an extra special person to volunteer within the emergency services," Mr Dib said.

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