THE township of Bulahdelah was hit severely by the storm that came through early on Friday morning with the State Emergency Service (SES) setting up a mobile command at the hospital over the long weekend.

A severe weather warning was issued by the Bureau of Meteorology at 3am and the storm hit Bulahdelah at around 5am.

Wind and hail stones the size of cricket balls caused damage to windows and skylights at the community hospital and this resulted in flooding of the administration building.

The first SES crew to respond was from the small Karuah Valley SES unit (which has approximately 12 members) and as the scale of the damage became clear several other crews were called in from further north (including units from Forster, Nabiac, Wingham and Harrington) and from the south (including units from Tomaree and Port Stephens).  

There were over 100 call outs across the Mid North Coast over the weekend with 80 per cent of these coming from the Bulahdelah township.  The large hail stones smashed through roof titles, windows and skylights, causing extensive damage to a number of homes.

The mobile response unit was in operation from Friday through to Sunday and packed up on Monday.

NSW SES acting Mid North Coast Region Controller, Tony Day acknowledged the work of NSW SES volunteers in responding to calls for assistance from the community over the course of the long weekend. 

“This is the third significant storm event in the area in the last 6 months and we encourage all residents to help the NSW SES volunteers by ensuring that their properties are prepared for possible severe weather.” 

Precautions include  clearing gutters and removing overhanging branches.  

For more information on how to residents and businesses can prepare their properties to minimise the impacts of storms, people are encouraged to log onto the NSW SES StormSafe website at: www.stormsafe.com.au .  

For emergency assistance in floods and storms please call the NSW SES on 132500.