SW QLD | 7 Feb 2012
Hundreds of emergency services personnel from across the Department of Community Safety (DCS) will continue to assist with the response and recovery efforts across south west Queensland today.
More than 170 firefighters with specialist training including rapid damage assessment and swiftwater rescue remain on the ground to assist the community. These firefighters are situated across Roma and Miles (34) Mitchell (31), Charleville (28) and St George (26).
A combined rapid damage assessment team of 17 firefighters will also arrive in St George this morning.
Rapid Damage Assessment firefighters have been working with the Queensland Reconstruction Authority to determine the severity of flood affected buildings in the towns.
These firefighters utilise their training and specialised electronic equipment which determines the level of flood inundation as well as subsequent damage and response requirements for that property.
Rapid Damage Assessments have been conducted on 478 properties in Mitchell with 247 of these being affected by floodwaters to varying extents.
In Roma, rapid damage assessments have been conducted on 884 properties with approximately 400 homes of these being affected by floodwaters to varying extents.
Twenty-six swift water and incident management trained firefighters are currently placed in St George to assist with evacuation and response operations.
The Emergency Management Queensland (EMQ) Rescue Helicopter from Brisbane, currently based in St George, has been working across south west Queensland since Friday night assisting with evacuations and medical cases when required.
Yesterday the crew assisted a family who were stranded by floodwaters on their property south of Wyandra. A man, woman, young boy and 6-month old baby were airlifted to safety to the town of Wyandra.
More than 70 SES volunteers have been deployed from other areas in the State to assist alongside local volunteers with clean up efforts in the areas of Roma, Mitchell and Charleville.
Two Queensland Ambulance Service specialist response teams are continuing to operate out of the Tactical Medical Centre in St George to assist local health providers.
