By Deanne Jeffers
BETWEEN Saturday morning and Tuesday, October 18, Rapid Relief Team (RRT) volunteers from Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, alongside the army and community had handed out over 50,000 sandbags to support 2,500 families in need, a mammoth effort helped by RRT’s rapid sandbagging machine.
RRT operations manager, Michael Dunn, said they packed the machine onto a semi-trailer, and alongside 18,000 sandbags, hit the road from Emu Plains, NSW at 5pm on Friday.
“Getting into Shepparton in the early hours of Saturday morning was understandably a little tricky, but no amount of rain was going to stop us from safely getting these bags to folk in Victoria,” Mr Dunn said.
“We arrived into the Shepparton Showground at around 6am Saturday morning and with queues around the showground of people needing assistance, we haven’t stopped since.
“We cannot praise the efforts of the local residents and ADF personnel enough, everyone has rolled up their sleeves and pitched in. This has also included our RRT catering services where we have served 635 meals to locals based in the Shepparton evacuation centre.”
The RRT sandbagging machine allows the charity to rapidly support flood-affected communities, churning out thousands of sandbags to protect homes and businesses.
“The Rapid Sandbagger can usually produce up to one thousand bags per hour, or about two bags per second, depending on the sand quality we’re using,” he said.
Almost 200,000 sandbags are reported to have been filled by volunteers, RRT and the army before the expected major flood peak on Monday.
RRT is continuing to support flood affected communities across Victoria, Tasmania and NSW. It has 10,000 sandbags ready and, access allowing, will set up the sandbagger next in Kerang to assist locals.
