After prepositioning assets, including high clearance vehicles and aircraft, early last week ahead of forecast severe weather in remote parts of Western NSW, the NSW SES was able to quickly coordinate and respond to the call for help across the border.
Shortly after 1pm on Sunday, 1 March, NSW SES responded to a flood rescue of a person trapped in a truck on the Barrier Highway, approximately 20 kilometres south-west of Yunta in South Australia.
With an aircraft on standby, the NSW SES was able to quickly spring into action to assist SA SES who was further away from the scene.
Incident Controller, Superintendent Josh Clark said the successful rescue was the result of strong interagency collaboration and prepositioning assets early.
"While on the South Australian side of the highway, it logistically made more sense for us to enact the rescue as we had the resources on standby and were able to respond quicker," he said.
"This is an example of how the NSW SES has really increased operational capacity, interagency collaboration and planning in the last five years to bolster response capabilities."
The LifeFlight helicopter was deployed to the scene from Broken Hill, and successfully retrieved a male trapped a truck in fast flowing floodwaters.
"It was a great effort by the LifeFlight crew who flew some 200 kilometres, winched down and retrieved the man to get him to safety," Superintendent Clark said.
The man was uninjured and was taken to accommodation by South Australian Police.
It comes as a timely reminder for people travelling through rural and remote parts of the state which have had significant rainfall in the past week, to never take the risk of driving through floodwaters.
"Out in the west it's relatively flat and floodwater and pool and sit on roads and causeways for days, but it still poses a very real risk to drivers," Superintendent Clark said.
"If people are driving through Western NSW, they should stay alert and never drive through floodwaters. That floodwater can be deeper than you think, and people have been caught out."
