SINGAPORE - Rescuers from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), including members of its elite Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (Dart), are in towns west of Sydney to help with search and rescue efforts.

The 16 members of Operation Lionheart, who arrived on Wednesday, split into two teams to assist in towns in New South Wales (NSW) that have been ravaged by floods.

In a Facebook update on Saturday, SCDF said that team A started operating in Forbes town, which is about 400km west of Sydney. The team rendered assistance to electricians, who were working in a flooded area to reinstate power supply at a power station.

The team will proceed to Condobolin town for their next deployment, SCDF said. The town is an hour’s drive west of Forbes.

Meanwhile, team B is in Wagga Wagga city on standby for activation. The city is about a five-hour drive south-west of Sydney.

The situation there is dynamic, SCDF said, with a possible incoming storm. While on standby, the team practised their lifesaving and boat handling techniques at the nearby Wiradjuri Reserve.

They also familiarised themselves with the equipment used by their Australian counterparts, including inflatable rescue boats.

SCDF said the 14 Dart officers deployed have advanced lifesaving skills, as well as advanced diver and rescue diver certifications and powered pleasurecraft licences.

South-east Australia, where NSW is located, has been hit hard by a wave of devastating floods over the course of a few months, as continuous bouts of torrential rainfall caused rivers to swell.

Entire towns have been cut off as flood waters submerged buildings and roads, with thousands left homeless.

Days of flooding have left local emergency services teams fatigued, driving the local authorities to seek international aid to supplement its flood emergency response – the state’s largest to date.

Besides the 16 SCDF personnel, a 24-strong team from New Zealand is also helping, while a team from the United States is expected to arrive soon.

This is on top of the 200 troops from the Australian Defence Force deployed in the area.

Australia’s east has been devastated by frequent floods over the last two years because of a multi-year La Nina weather event, typically associated with increased rainfall.

In March, flooding in NSW and Queensland killed at least 20 people, caused mass evacuations, and resulted in damage worth at least A$5 billion (S$4.6 billion).