They spoke about tsunami awareness, emergency evacuation and recovery plans, and the ongoing support and availability of Port Macquarie SES members to provide vertical rescue capabilities or to help after tsunamis or severe storms. As part of the visit, the Local Commander Tim Solomon and members from the Port Macquarie unit, liaised with the island's other key stakeholders such as the Police, Marine Rescue, welfare, the local hospital, doctor, pharmacist, and the Lord Howe Island Board. This provided the perfect opportunity for the SES to help the locals and ran their chainsaw course assessment, clearing the fallen tree on Saturday morning and demonstrating the practical skills gained by being part of the NSW SES. A real-life scenario presented itself after an evening storm brought down a tree blocking a resident's access to their home.
The team also enjoyed a picnic lunch with spectacular views overlooking the island from the top of Mount Gower, before tackling the descent back down the mountain. While on Lord Howe Island, the Port Macquarie SES team took on the challenge to climb the 876 metres up Mount Gower to check and resupply the two emergency rescue caches that were deployed several years ago. The 'weeders' also gained experience using edge management rope systems to assist with weeding along some of Lord Howe Island's steeper slopes. The Port Macquarie SES trainers spent the day providing first aid and CPR currency, teaching the weeding team how to package casualties ready for transport and how to use the SES mule. As part of ongoing inter-agency relationships with the island, the Lord Howe Island Board's Weeding team participated in a professional development day with the SES. Rescue scenarios included a person trapped under a vehicle requiring the use of pack and jack techniques, a road crash scenario that required a side and roof removal using their combi tool, a request to search for a missing visitor and their two-year-old old son in Stephen's Reserve, and the set up and use of their Larkin frame for a simulated recovery of an injured person on the side of a steep slope. Each day challenging training scenarios were set up for SES Lord Howe Island members to maintain their skills, learn new techniques and familiarise new members with the equipment available on the island. The week comprised a variety of challenging training scenarios, first aid currency training, unit stocktakes, new member induction programs, a chainsaw course and tsunami awareness conversations with other emergency services on the Island. The team of Katie Blake, Michael Ward, Alfred Portenschlager, Jared Bradley and Will Steggall are all experienced operators overseeing a team of general land rescue operators, three vertical rescue operators and four flood rescue technicians.
A TEAM of trainers and assessors from Port Macquarie-Hastings NSW SES have put their skills to the test and completed a week-long training and support mission on Lord Howe Island.
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