Watch: Woman, 80s, rescued in Hervey Bay by police volunteering their time

Video has captured the dramatic moment an elderly woman told to evacuate her Hervey Bay home was rescued by two police officers who had volunteered to assist the flood-hit region.

Video has captured the dramatic moment an elderly woman told to evacuate her Hervey Bay home was rescued by two police officers who had volunteered to assist the flood-hit region.

Constable Lee Kellaway and Senior Constable Joshua Cronk from Maryborough Station were on shift on Sunday, March 9 when they heard an influx of calls come through over the radio for nearby Hervey Bay, which was heavily impact by ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

In an exclusive interview with The Courier-Mail, Constable Kellaway said: “Josh and I were working a 6am to 2pm shift in Maryborough”.

“Josh and I heard what was going on in Hervey Bay and all the jobs coming in, all the calls for service and we just spoke to our shift supervisor and ‘hey do you think maybe we should shoot down the bay and give those guys a hand’.

“The shift supervisor agreed … there just wouldn’t have been enough crews in Hervey Bay to handle the volume of calls coming in.”

Constable Kellaway and Senior Constable Cronk doorknocked several residents in Hervey Bay and at one stage helped with the evacuation of an elderly woman.

The woman, believed to be in her 80s, was evacuated from her Torquay home with footage of the police response released earlier this week.

The officers can be seen wading through waist deep water as they doorknocked impacted residents.

“You are aware of the risk of possibly being swept away and you don’t know what’s under the water either because you can’t see anything,” Constable Kellaway said.

“When we got to her, she had an oxygen machine that was plugged into the wall … the water was lapping just underneath the power point.

“(We) quickly turned the power off to the dwelling, we transported her lights and sirens ourselves to the hospital because we knew the ambulance could quite possibly not get there because just about every road you went down there was flooding.

“She had a bit of an episode in the car, we just monitored her and kept talking to her until we got her to (Hervey Bay Hospital).”

Constable Kellaway said as they responded to other jobs in the area they were constantly flagged down by other residents.

“We were dealing with a lot more than what was just coming in over the radio and people calling for help,” he said.

“There was one girl, her car was stuck in floodwater and we got out and pushed her car for her.

“Every job we went to, we weren’t really sure what we were going to be walking into.”

A Queensland Police spokeswoman said police and emergency services doorknocked more than 10,000 homes across southeast Queensland and the North Coast “as part of the preparation and response” to ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

“Emergency crews also undertook dozens of evacuations and rescue responses across multiple days,” she said.

It comes as additional police were earlier this week deployed to Hervey Bay to conduct high-visibility anti-looting patrols and doorknocks across flood affected communities.

Maryborough Patrol Group Acting Inspector Brooke Flood said the additional resources will boost local boots on the ground.

“Local police and emergency services have worked extremely hard throughout this weather event, serving their communities while their homes and families were too at risk,” A/Inspector Flood said.

“The additional support will allow us to increase proactive patrols across Hervey Bay and support us in preventing crime and protecting our communities, as we work on recovering from the severe weather event.”

Originally published as Watch: Woman, 80s, rescued in Hervey Bay by police volunteering their time