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A Western Australian Incident Management Team from the Department of Fire and Emergency Services will be deployed to New South Wales today to assist communities devastated by major flooding.

The WA contingent of 10 incident management specialists, comprises seven DFES staff, two SES volunteers and one staff member from the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation.

The team will perform key roles including:

• incident control;
• flood intelligence;
• planning; and
• providing information and warnings and keeping communities safe.

The Incident Management team will operate alongside the New South Wales State Emergency Service (NSW SES) to coordinate the emergency response.

The team will be deployed to Lismore in northern NSW for seven days, and complete COVID-19 testing requirements before travelling back to Western Australia.

The deployment is the result of a request from the NSW SES for assistance which was approved by the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Resource Sharing Centre following catastrophic flooding this week. Hundreds of thousands of people in NSW are under evacuation orders or warnings.

As stated by Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson:

“I would like to extend my thoughts to the thousands of people in northern New South Wales and south-eastern Queensland who have been affected.

“The flooding on the east coast has been devastating in some of the worst floods we have seen in recent memory.

“The McGowan Government has had personnel on standby in case they were required to assist and I am extremely proud that Western Australia will provide valuable support in this emergency response.

“I know our Western Australian response contingent will all do our State proud.”

As stated by Emergency Services Commissioner Darren Klemm AFSM:

“Resource sharing is so important when responding to natural disasters and I am delighted that staff and volunteers from the Department of Fire and Emergency Services have offered their services to help these communities who have been devastated by the floods.

“Our specialised team will play key roles in the emergency response with the range of skills and invaluable experience they will provide.”