One Storm. Two Rescues. Zero Hesitation.

There was just so much rain! Sadly people died!. So many people were getting stranded in their cars in floodwater, caught off guard by the volume of water and fast flowing

currents, more suited to big rivers than suburban streets.

Two other SES members and I were the first to arrive at the shed and had just begun sorting through incoming jobs when a job came in from a woman trapped in her home. She was sitting on the dining room table with her children as floodwaters continued to rise steadily around them.

One of our team members was recovering from a heart attack, so we’d planned to coordinate jobs from the depot. But with no swift water rescue crews available and the rain intensifying—up to 300mm an hour—we ran out of options.

We decided to hitch the flood boat to the troopy and head out to try and help the stranded family.

On the way, we came across an SUV that had been swept off the road by floodwaters and wedged against a tree.  A man was perched in the open passenger window, stranded and waiting for help.

He was driving in an 80km/h zone, it was pitch black and he didn’t see the floodwater until it was too late.  By the time he realised, his large SUV was deep in the fast-flowing current – lifted off the road and swept across a gully, completely out of his control. It finally came to rest, wedged against a tree.

By the time we arrived he’d wisely lowered his electric windows – if he hadn’t, he might’ve been trapped inside.  Instead, he’d managed to climb partway out and was perched on the window ledge, surrounded by the rising floodwater.

There was no way to get to him by boat, but we couldn’t leave him there - we still had to get to the woman stranded on her dining room table with her kids.

In the end we made the call: I would wade through the floodwater, tied off to the bulbar of the troopy, carrying a spare life jacket to bring him back to safety.

We had a 16mm rescue rope in the back - usually used for stretcher work – so we grabbed it, tied one end around my waist and the other end to the vehicle.

I had six little kids at the time, so I turned to Geoff (one of the SES members with me) and said half-joking , “If anything bad happens you’ve got the kids”.

Then I chose the safest, smoothest section of water I could find and began wading carefully to the man and his car. 

Once I reached him, I helped him into the spare life jacket I’d brought, tied him to the same rope and began guiding him back through the still rising floodwater. I held onto the back of his life jacket and had him walk in front of me, retracing the exact path I’d taken across.

Thankfully we never had to rely on the rope - but it was reassuring to have it, just in case we lost footing and got swept away.

It might sound a bit wild, but it wasn’t bat shit crazy.   We were safety-conscious, drawing on our training and choosing the smoothest, safest route we could find.

The hardest part was getting him to slow down. With the rain hammering down, water rushing around us, and adrenaline kicking in, he just wanted to get out fast. At one point, I had to grab the back of his life jacket and tell him firmly to slow down — because in that kind of water, slow and steady is what keeps you alive.

Once he was safely back on dry land, we continued toward the original job - to reach the woman and her children still stranded in their home.

By the time we got to the lady it was impossible to access her property as there were about 5 cars washed up in the driveway.  Luckily, we managed to get her on the phone, and she said they would be able to wade through the water to her neighbours.

It was a solid plan and should have been a relatively straightforward task: launch the boat using the flooded street as a makeshift ramp, motor across to the neighbour’s property where she waited on the other side of the creek with the kids and the dog. Then take them in the flood boat back to safety.

Fate had other plans – when we tried to get the boat off the trailer, we just couldn’t get it off.  What we didn’t know when we left the depot on our mission was that the boat had just come back from being repaired and for some reason the trailer guides had been put on backwards.  So, there was no way to get the boat off and into the water.

I even tried climbing through the back of the troop carrier once it was reversed into the water to a deeper level than usual in the hope that I could push it off once it was floating above the trailer base.  But it was just an impossible task so in the end we had to get creative.  Instead of driving the boat, we left it attached to the vehicle and reversed it down the neighbour’s driveway to get them out. 

The lady and her 3 kids and the dog were waiting anxiously.  We fitted them all with life jackets, helped them into the boat and then drove back across the causeway to dry land.

It was the start of a crazy few days but eventually the rain stopped. Life returned to its usual chaos—six kids, muddy boots, and a uniform waiting for the next call-out.

Who is this extraordinary volunteer?

Meet Kirsty Keddie—an everyday face you might pass on the street, but with an extraordinary heart. She’s driven by a deep passion for volunteering, the SES, and helping people in need.

When she’s not out volunteering with the SES, Kirsty works as a registered nurse and cherishes time with her husband and children. Volunteering runs in her blood—she comes from a large family, many of whom are also in the SES.  In the years that followed each of her 6 children joined as they got old enough, and 4 are still active members, sharing Kirsty’s commitment to the help others in the community.

Over the years, Kirsty has earned a long list of medals and awards and was recently honoured with lifetime membership to the SES—a testament to her dedication, compassion, and impact.

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