NSW State Emergency Service’s Maitland unit prepared for a busy couple of days but was left relatively surprised after only receiving two call outs across a windy weekend.
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A severe weather warning was issued for the Hunter on Sunday, meaning the unit was ready for major damage across the city.
But the worst they were called to was a tree that split in a Tenambit backyard and fell onto a veranda on Saturday evening.
“It caused quite substantial damage to the veranda,” Maitland SES spokesperson Alex Varley said. “But luckily it was just the veranda and not the house.”
The SES crew was on scene for about an hour and a half trying to remove the debris.
The other job they attended was a few branches that had come down on a roof in South Maitland on Saturday afternoon.
There were no call outs on Sunday, much to the surprise of Ms Varley.
“We were pretty lucky there,” she said. “We saw the warnings come through, but it seemed that it was most severe on the coast.”
The two Saturday jobs followed on from a call out two weeks ago to Maitland Federation Centre which sprang a leak.
Ms Varley said other than that the crew had been kept pretty quiet, which had given them time to update their training and bring in new members.