JOHN BISSET/STUFF
A dozen South Canterbury firefighters received citations for their work in helping with the 2019 bush fires in New South Wales, Australia.
South and Mid Canterbury firefighters who battled bushfires that devastated parts of New South Wales in 2019-2020 have been acknowledged with awards. New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has granted a Bushfire Emergency Citation for operational service to 12 firefighters from the two areas. Mid-South Canterbury principal rural fire officer Rob Hands and Fire and Emergency NZ (Fenz) Mid-South Canterbury area commander Steven Greenyer presented the awards at the Timaru Fire Station on Thursday. Hands said the contingent had worked hard during their deployment.
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The size of the hail that hit Timaru in a storm in November 2019, causing more than $170 million in damage.
Multi-million dollar insurance payouts for fires and a storm were big news in The Timaru Herald during November, writes Doug Sail in an ongoing review of 2020. The insurance bill for Timaru’s 2019 hailstorm reached $170.98m in November making it New Zealand’s costliest weather event this century. The Insurance Council of New Zealand’s (ICNZ) figures released a few days before the one-year anniversary of the storm, listed the hailstorm in the top five of the most expensive natural disasters since it began keeping records in 1968.