Deniliquin's Paul Holloway (sitting at the front of the boat) gets ready to launch with his multi-agency team on one of the swift water rescues.
A Deniliquin couple played their part to help those stranded in the recent NSW floods.
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Jess and Chris Holloway spent two days last week volunteering as part of a swift water rescue team on the Central Coast.
The Deniliquin VRA Rescue NSW squad members joined with others to help rescue people who had called 000.
Most had some sort of illness or medical emergency and were cut off by floodwaters.
All-in-all the couple took part in eight rescues over the two days.
One of the more unusual rescues was for a man who had fallen from a ladder and had a head injury.
Paramedics went with them for that rescue, assessing the man before the swift water rescue team was able to move him to drier ground.
The Holloways based themselves out of Wyong, with much of their work taking place in the area around Yarramalong.
The VRA Rescue NSW members worked with police, ambulance and SES to conduct their flood rescues.
“It was quite interesting to work with other agencies,“ Mrs Holloway said.
Deniliquin's Jess Holloway (standing on the road on the far left) waits for a lift with her team after a rescue.
For most of their rescues, they used inflatable boats with a motor.
Some of the rescues, however, saw the Holloways hop aboard the SES Unimog trucks — an off-road truck — something Mrs Holloway said was “pretty cool”.
Normally in Deniliquin, Mr Holloway is the captain of the Deniliquin VRA Rescue NSW, while Mrs Holloway is the squad’s treasurer, as well as also being the VRA southern regional coordinator over 12 squads.
Mrs Holloway said the couple took up the call for help from friends they have on the Central Coast.
“We have a strong relationship with Central Coast Rescue through friends,” she said.
“They got really busy.”
Mrs Holloway said the two days of rescues — plus another two days of driving to get there and back — had been rewarding.
“We train for that sort of response,” she said.
“To be able to go and help those regions is quite good.”
Mrs Holloway said with Deniliquin not subject to flooding like many other parts of the state meant she was happy to go and help.
“It is good knowing we are not leaving our area short,” she said.
Paul Holloway and his team launching into floodwater for yet another rescue on the Central Coast.
“I enjoyed it a lot.
“We made some good networks.”
This is not the first time the Holloways have been involved with helping in floods in other parts of the state.
Earlier in the year the pair went to Bega where they also helped with the floods there for four days.
Mr Holloway then backed that up with another four days in Singleton straight afterwards.
About a year ago, Mrs Holloway did some work in the SES operation centre.
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