The Situation

14 February 2020 – Valentine’s Day.

This was the warning from the Weather Bureau on Valentine’s Day for Melbourne…. ”Brace yourselves Melbourne because a severe thunderstorm warning has been issued for much of the city and Geelong, resulting in a miserable end to the work week.” And they weren’t wrong.

The pressure trough, which delivered record-breaking rainfall to New South Wales during week, had been slowly moving south, bringing thunderstorms and rain to Victoria. And it rained and rained and rained.

Some residents reported more than 60 millimetres of rainfall and many suburbs were experiencing major flooding. The SES received more than 400 callouts during the storm mainly for flooding, building damage and downed trees.

As strata managers, Tideways were prepared to act as soon as they were needed. And they were needed……

The Action

Tideways was contacted and immediately two Directors were onsite to manage the response team and action an emergency plan. This included:

• Facility Manager brought onsite to assist the response
• Bringing in plumbers to assess the plumbing and isolate any areas of concern
• Bringing in electricians to ensure safe environments and immediately shut-down any areas of concern
• Bringing in a flood response team to access the current damage and alleviate any further damage to the property

Once in place the teams worked cooperatively to assess the situation. It was soon identified that the flooding was major and extra resources were activated to ensure all preventative actions could be taken to prevent further damage. Residents were reassured and kept informed of updates when they came to hand.

The team from Tideways were onsite until 2am working with electricians, plumbers, facility manager and flood response to ensure they had unencumbered access to the service cupboard, circuit boards and any restricted access areas.

The Outcome

Photos were taken of all areas and sent directly to Tideways in-house insurance officer giving them all they needed to engage the insurer/assessor first thing the following Monday.

Due to the quick response from the Tideways team and their professionalism and expertise in managing disaster situations, all the tradespeople and flood response teams (who were on speed-dial) were onsite in no time. The situation, although still damaging to the building, was managed efficiently which reduced the overall impact. Residents felt at ease and well-informed of the situation and could rely on Tideways to deal with what needed to be done.

A lot of damage was caused that night to hundreds of properties in Melbourne, but the Owners and Residents of this building were grateful they had strata managers who were quick to respond, who were knowledgeable in the layout of their complex including electricals, who took their concerns into consideration and acted quickly post-flood to claim on insurance to repair any damage.