Widespread flash flooding across Pakenham caused building damage to homes and businesses on Friday 14 January.
Pakenham SES spokesman Shayne Honey said the unit had 30 calls for assistance in the space of an hour, beginning around 8.30pm.
“Within an hour we had activated our crews because we realised we needed to quickly get on top of the jobs,“ he said.
Most of the calls required assistance from flooding in homes either from the ground or through roof damage.
“Were possible, we were able to provide sandbags and assisted with the clean up,“ he said.
Pakenham SES had to assist with a rescue, in which a family had become trapped in a house with ankle deep water.
The people had to be taken from the home in basket stretchers.
Shayne said this time of year was common for severe weather events.
“We do normally see flooding in the summer months with summer storms. It’s similar to 11 years ago when Pakenham flooded and was under water for a few days,“ he said.
