Fire and Emergency Team to support New South Wales flood response

14 Whiringa-ā-rangi 2022

An incident management team from Fire and Emergency New Zealand will be departing for Australia today (Monday 14 November) to support the widespread flooding response in New South Wales.

Paul Turner, National Manager Response Capability, says a team of 12 people will arrive in Sydney this afternoon to assist in a variety of support roles including operations, planning, public information, logistics, resources, and air support. A second team will also deploy to continue support, arriving in Sydney on Thursday 24 November.

The New Zealand teams will be working two five-day rotations. There will be a rest day between the rotations and a travel day on either side.

"Significant rainfall over the last few weeks has resulted in large floods across the state. Just yesterday (13 November 2022) there were 89 flood warnings in place throughout New South Wales, 12 of which were at emergency warning level," Paul Turner says.

"Our Australian colleagues have been doing a fantastic job over the past weeks dealing with such a significant flood response and we’re happy to answer their call for support."

"Deploying overseas enables us to support our colleagues in Australia, and provide valuable development opportunities for our people," he says.

"It gives those involved experience in different environments that they can bring back home to New Zealand."

New Zealand has deployed 64 times to Australia, Canada and USA since 2000. This will be the first time deploying to assist a flood response since Fire and Emergency was formed in 2017.

Deployed personnel are from:

Auckland - 3

Bay of Plenty - 1

Canterbury - 1

Hawke’s Bay - 1

Marlborough - 1

Waikato - 1

Wellington - 3

Whanganui - 1