Multiple agencies were out in the field supporting flood-affected residents in Windsor on Monday, July 11, including the NSW State Emergency Service (SES), Fire and Rescue and the Australian Defence Force.
The coordinated effort allowed clean-up efforts to occur more quickly than in previous floods, according to Brad Dousha, NSW SES Damage Assessment Coordinator.
The multi-agency support included a clean-out at the Hawkesbury Country Retreat at Cornwallis, which was affected by flood last weekend (July 2).
"Down here today we have just over 40 ADF personnel, plus about four or five Fire and Rescue NSW tankers and an SES presence to ensure we ... get this property cleaned-out," Mr Dousha said.
"We've been inundated three times this year, and each time they've required the same sort of clean-out, so, a massive effort today, and really good for the multi-agency presence."
Mr Dousha said the agencies had been assisting the community in the recovery phase since last Thursday (July 7).
"Once all the rescues and the rivers start going down, we've had our community liaison officers and our damage assessment teams out checking all of Liverpool, Camden, through Blacktown and now we're concentrating on the Hawkesbury area," Mr Dousha said.
"We're probably three days into that recovery phase and there's a lot left to be done, but we're slowly getting to all the community."
He said the SES rapid risk assessment team was tasked with noting on each property - via an app - the damage and repairs that need to be done.
The information is then fed back to the other agencies supporting the recovery effort to clean or restore services, depending on what needs to be done.
The recovery effort has included a "very large force" of ADF personnel.
"From the residents and other agencies it's been very well received," Mr Dousha said.
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SES, NSW Fire and Rescue, and NSW Rural Fire Service personnel were also involved.
Mr Dousha said the multi-agency effort had allowed SES and the management teams to "get on the front foot" and gather the intelligence to move to recovery more quickly than what they would normally do.
"It's allowed us to obviously get lives back to normal more quickly than what we normally do," he said.
Video courtesy of NSW SES.