Batemans Bay and Moruya State Emergency Service (SES) crews helped out in their own backyards yesterday as rain lashed the shire - but they also answered the call from neighbours.

Three crews were sent yesterday morning to Narooma, after floodwaters rose in torrential rain, flooding homes and making streets no-go zones.

They assessed about 15 houses in the flood zone, sandbagging some and moving furniture and belongings to safety for at least one flooded householder.

Other crews remained closer to home, pumping water from under and around a unit in Batehaven and covering roofs in Batemans Bay and Moruya in tarpaulins.

After an already full day, Batemans Bay crews were sent late yesterday afternoon to help in Ulludulla as the rain intensified.

Their work is likely to be cut out for them again  with a gale force wind warning remaining in place today and falls of up to 150mm of rains predicted on the South Coast.

A comment from Moruya SES unit controller Peter Collins was particularly poignant, as he managed his crews responses in both Moruya and Narooma.

With so many people needing help in such a short time, he said crews were stretched.

“One of the hardest things is not being able to help everyone as quickly as we would like to,” he said, taking a brief break yesterday from covering another home with a tarpualin.

“We would like to be able to do more, but we don’t have the resources.”

His sincerity was evident in his voice.

Those resources needed are overwhelmingly human.

If SES crews had more volunteers to call on, more people could be helped in these times of crisis, more quickly.

Our shire has almost double the national average of people aged over 65 years.

That means less people able to help themselves - and more customers for the SES.

However the SES ranks themselves are ageing.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if their own call for help - for an infusion of young blood - was met before the next emergency?