PAKENHAM OFFICER
pakenhamnews.starcommunity.com.au
Thursday, 10 September, 2020
/ p a k e nha m s t a r ne w s
Officer endures more pothole pain
Walking and talking to better mental health
Bid for one-way lake walk rejected
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A Pakenham SES volunteer works to remove a large fallen tree.
SES units began getting calls at 11.30pm on Monday night, 7 September.
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“We’ve had members out since 10pm Monday night. We had two crews overnight, they’ve gone to bed and we had some fresh crews on Tuesday,” Mr Owen said. “We’ve had 96 pages for assistance in the last 24 hours.” Mr Owen said SES crews from Malvern, Monash and Chelsea provided assistance, after fallen trees created numerous traffic hazards and damaged buildings. The damaging winds came less than 12 days after severe weather impacted the region on 27 August. Since 1989
“At times we needed to pull our crews back because it simply wasn’t safe enough to stay and work on trees while others were coming down around,” Mr Honey said. “On a few occasions we needed to clear trees just to get to where we needed.” Mr Honey urged the community to remain vigilant and aware of their surroundings and to consider driving alternate routes away from large trees. Emerald SES unit manager Ben Owen said the number of calls for assistance in the Hills region had reached almost 100. 12457238-CG32-20
Pakenham and Emerald SES volunteers endured a sleepless Monday night, forced to respond to over 150 calls for help as wild winds lashed the area. The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) issued a severe weather warning for damaging winds on Tuesday morning, 8 September, for people in parts of the city through to Gippsland. The majority of call outs were for fallen trees, according to Pakenham SES spokesperson Shayne Honey.
Mr Honey said the first job came through just after 11.30pm on Monday night, with crews working through the night. “We had a crew of 15 volunteers working throughout the night to 6am and a fresh set of volunteers started at 7am,” he explained. The hardest hit areas were Pakenham, Pakenham Upper, Nar Nar Goon and Nar Nar Goon North. The Pakenham unit had responded to almost 50 jobs, as of 10am, with 30 of the call outs coming between 11.30pm and 5am. 12425088-FA36-19
By Mitchell Clarke