As Kalbarri woke up to mass devastation after tropical cyclone Seroja hit many SES volunteers from around WA were boarding a plane or driving to help.
Mandurah SES volunteers answered the call for clean up assistance with a team of seven flying up on April 17.
A second Mandurah team flew up the week after.
Some of the tasks the team carried out included roof repairs, cutting down fallen trees, removing fallen debris from houses and businesses, and providing communication support at the incident control centre.
Mandurah SES team leader Kim Honey said this cyclone deployment impacted her more than any other one she had assisted in.
"Over all my cyclone deployments, this one hit closest to home as the small communities up there are all tightly knit," she said.
"The resilience of the people living there, and how friendly and appreciative they were, was incredible to see given what's happened.
"My team worked well with each other across the deployment and helped the rest of the SES units work through and complete as many requests for assistance, from those who were impacted, as we could."
Mandurah SES volunteer Bec Burns said it was devastating to see the damage done to the community.
"Being my first cyclone deployment, across six years in the SES, it was quite overwhelming to see the destruction and devastation that the cyclone caused to the community," she said.
"I was thankful that my team leader, Kim had experience with cyclone deployments and was able to provide my team and I the right guidance, support and information as to what to expect, and the things we will be doing on this deployment."
