A workshop next week in Lismore is part of a project to improve Lismore’s preparedness for future flood events.
The workshop will include key community partners and stakeholders, and will be held on Wednesday and Thursday, with a summary session on Thursday evening.
Lismore City Council’s Executive Director Sustainable Development Brent McAlister said the workshop was part of the broader Lismore Flood Ready project, which includes the development of a comprehensive plan for dealing with major floods, from the initial emergency phase right through to long-term recovery.
The plan will complement existing emergency management arrangements.
‘The aim of this workshop is to bring together the plethora of stakeholders, briefings, reviews and working groups into one place to agree on a flood plan,’ Mr McAllister said.
‘If we don’t do this we will have an ad-hoc and disjointed response to future floods.’
As part of the workshop, key government, business and community stakeholders will come together for a roundtable discussion and to coordinate implementation of the various reviews and reports that have been conducted since the March natural disaster.
‘The reality is that extreme weather events and major floods will occur again in the future, and our city needs to be better prepared to respond with key programs and procedures in place to assist with clean-up and recovery,’ Mr McAllister said.
‘Our community, council and emergency service personnel did a magnificent job of responding to the March flood event, which was unprecedented as the levee had never before overtopped.
‘We need to learn what mistakes we made so we don’t repeat them, but we also need to document the wonderful ways in which our community came together and supported one another.
‘We also want to record learnings from the Lismore Helping Hands Hub and what happened at the donations pavilion.
‘This will allow us to better coordinate volunteers, both before a flood hits as well as after the waters recede, to ensure that our business people and the most vulnerable in our community are well supported throughout any disaster event.’
The workshop will look at five key focus areas:
Preparedness
Spontaneous Volunteer Management
Business and Community Education and Awareness
Recovery
Spontaneous Volunteer Management
Donations Coordination and Flood Appeals
Connectedness
Communication and Coordination
Welfare Management
Business Sector
Preparedness, Response and Recovery
Funding and Governance
Lismore Flood Ready Plan Implementation
Members of the public are welcome to attend the summary session in the council chambers on Thursday, 5 October from 6-7pm.
The summary session will also be live streamed via the ‘Meeting Webcasts’ page on Council’s website at www.lismore.nsw.gov.au.
For more information on the Lismore Flood Ready project visit www.lismore.nsw.gov.au.
A new sandbag is being launched through Bunnings in October – definitely worth checking out. It works by using water to contain water.
Dubbed the ‘Miracle Sandbag’ – its incredibly light and easy to store. In flooding situations it self-inflates automatically, by absorbing up up to 18 kg’s of water in 4-6 minutes so very easy on ones back! It’s completely re-usable but you can also dispose of it as it’s biodegradable, and will not harm the environment.
http://miraclesandbag.com