March 2012 has been very busy for the ACT SES as the rain has fallen in record amounts.

Late in February the warning came that a slow moving weather system was moving across from the west. Within the first week of March over 200mm had fallen in Canberra and we had received over 1000 requests for assistance. Woden had teams out undertaking storm and water damage repair for nine days straight. In fact every operational member of the Unit was involved and three shifts a day (eight hour shifts) were run over a number of days. In addition to this Woden SES had members in the IMT and had set up a staging / equipment resourcing base at Woden Base. Catering was also set up at the Unit to feed crews.

The vast majority of jobs were for leaking roofs however, a number of technical and large tree jobs were undertaken after a brief windy period.

NSW SES requested the assistance of ACT SES in Hay as a result of the increasing risk of flooding in the area. ACT SES sent 27 members over the period 19 to 27 March.

The good news is La Nina is officially over. Perhaps La Nino will return and produce hot / drought conditions later in the year / 2013, only time will tell.

A great job by all over the last few months.

Date Location Event Type Remarks

31 Dec Civic AMB Support NYE Operation

5 Jan ESA Curtin SWD IMT SWD Operations

6 Jan Conder Area SWD Hail damage

14-18 Jan Qld SWD Task Force 1

18-22 Jan Qld SWD Task Force 2

25 Jan Federation Mall AMB Support Aust Day Live Concert

26 Jan Tidbinbilla CE Aust Day Tidbinbilla

26 Jan Deakin CE The Lodge

4-8 Feb Qld Task Force 3 SWD
QLD

12-16 Jan Qld SWD Task Force 4

20-24 Jan Qld SWD Task Force 5

23-27 Jan Qld SWD Task Force 6

24 Feb EPIC CE Tent for Make a Wish

27 Feb Various SWD Chainsaw and Flooding

19 Mar Lake Burley Griffin CE Skyfire

19 Mar Lake Burley Griffin AMB Support Skyfire

20 Mar Weston CE Festival of Forests

27 Mar Hume CE Southcare Open Day

29 Mar Tidbinbilla NR CE Site Visit

3 Apr Tidbinbilla NR CE TNR Extravaganza

8-10Apr Namadgi NP CE Woden Unit Camp

15-16 Apr Namadgi NP CE AFP SAREX

3 May Russell CE Darren Wall Fun Run

21 May Tidbinbilla NR ESA NAVCAN

30-31 May Civic CE Volunteer Summit

3 Jun Civic CE World environment Day

4 Jul Legislative Assy CE Deployment Function

9 Jul Various SWD Roof Repair

10 Jul Woden SWD Hoyts Flooding

11 Jul Various SWD SWD Callouts

23 Jul Gungahlin ESA Lighting Trailer Support

31 Jul Kambah AFP/ACTAS Casualty Recovery

2 Aug Conder ACTFB Lighting Trailer Support

5 Aug Fairnbairn ESA Generator Support

6-7 Aug Hughes CE Malkara

15 Aug Woden CE Canb College EXPO

20-25 Aug Parkmore ACTFB Lighting Trailer Support

29-31 Aug Sydney CE AFAC Conference

17-19 Sep Mitchell ACTFB Lighting Trailer Support

29 Sep Russell CE AFP Remembrance Day

22 Oct Yarralumla CE Nara Candle Festival

5 Nov Woden CE Woden Festival

5 Nov Woden CE SES Field Day

13 Nov Weston CE Orana School Festival

16 Nov ACTFB Lighting Trailer Support

15-17 Nov Parliament house CE POTUS Visit

2 Dec Civic CE Xmas Tree Lighting

11 Dec Hughes CE Santa Delivery

15 Dec Yarralumla CE JACS Xmas Party

26 Dec Manuka / Spence SWD

31 Dec Civic AMB Support NYE Celebration

217 Requests for assistance were received between 29 - 30 November after a number of storms passed through the Canberra region. A large amount of lightning occured during this period and some flash flooding occured.

The bulk of the requests were for leaking roofs, with a few requests requiring chainsawing of falled trees or branches.

Woden had teams out in the field Tuesday night until approxamately 5am Wednesday and then again from 8am until about 10:30pm Wednesday night.

A big effort from everyone, well done.

Over the weekend Woden SES volunteers were kept busy after flash flooding / heavy rain hit Tuggeranong valley.

Two crews went out Friday night and faced jobs for flooding, leaking roofs and fallen trees. About 80 jobs were received across the service and the last crews stood down around 1am Saturday morning.

Jobs started coming through again Saturday morning after people discovered damage from the previous nights rain. Woden 60 was stood up late in the afternoon for a few hours, with one tree that fell down late in the afternoon over a road in Deakin. Approx. 35 jobs were received on the Saturday.

Late Sunday evening Woden 60 was tasked to a large tree job in Mawson. A pine tree about 15 metres tall posed a threat to two houses. The ACT Fire and Rescue 'Bronto' was called in to assist in removing the tree. After more than five hours the job was completed and the weary crew of four stood down about 230am Monday morning.

Well done to all for a weekend of call outs.

Canberra was hit with a couple of high intensity, slow moving, storms over the evening of Sunday 11 December which resulted in numerous call outs for leaking roofs and tree damage.

Woden was undertaking a community event at the time at the Hughes Baptist Church Carols when the rain really started to come down.

Both Woden 60 and Woden 63 went out responding to numerous jobs.

In some places about 40mm of rain fell within the hour. Roads became rivers, basements become pools and driving became very difficult, if not dangerous and impossible. Woden 63 stayed out until about 2am which saw the majority of jobs completed.

As of 0930 Monday 12th 151 calls for help had been received with the clean-up operation continuing.

Well done to all who helped out.