Hawkesbury State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers were kept busy over the weekend as high winds caused trees to come down on roads and power lines across the region.
SES Controller Kevin Jones said a total of 16 calls for assistance were received from areas including Richmond, Windsor, North Richmond, Kurrajong, East Kurrajong, Kurrajong Heights, Bowen Mountain and Glossodia as winds picked up on Saturday, October 26.
"Damage was mostly trees down on roads and trees on power lines," he said.
"Hawkesbury Council and Roads and Maritime Services attended to the trees on their respective roads, and we had a team attending to trees blocking resident access, tree branches leaning on houses, and trees on fences."
One such incident saw a tree come down on the roadway at March Street, outside the Richmond Inn Hotel, smashing the windscreen of a parked car.
Winds also fanned a grass fire at East Kurrajong, with fast action by fire crews praised for keeping the flames away from nearby properties (see story opposite page).
Mr Jones said no major damage was reported.
"The damage was luckily relatively minor," he said.
Volunteers had managed to fit in some training on the new Windsor bridge construction site prior to the winds whipping up, he said.
The Hawkesbury SES Unit is the accredited general land rescue and vertical rescue unit for the Hawkesbury area, and the exercise simulated rescuing an injured construction worker.
Hawkesbury SES thanked construction contractors Georgiou Group for allowing them to access the site.
