Roadshow to boost emergency preparedness

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AN emergency management roadshow is making its way around four southern municipalities worst affected by last year's flooding events. The first stop was at Kingborough earlier this week, followed by Derwent Valley, Glenorchy and Hobart in the weeks ahead.

Derwent Valley Council emergency management officer David Bradford said the local expo would be held at the New Norfolk War Memorial Hall from 9am-noon on September 21.

"Four councils applied for a grant and were successful to run four emergency roadshows," Mr Bradford said. "The grants were from the Southern Tasmanian Extreme Weather Events community recovery and resilience grants."

The funding allows the Kingborough, Hobart City, Derwent Valley and Glenorchy City councils to conduct "emergency roadshows" visiting the four municipalities worst affected by the May 2018 floods, to provide information to communities on the services available to them during and after a flood or other disaster.

Entry will be free and visitors will be able to meet and greet emergency services crews and learn a thing or two about being prepared for an emergency.

Funding from the same grants program has already provided emergency management community noticeboards which were recently installed outside the Lachlan Fire Station and the Molesworth Community Hall, as well as training to build community capacity to respond in future emergencies.

The Molesworth noticeboard.

The all-weather noticeboards will help with the sharing of emergency information at Lachlan and Molesworth, which are known to be mobile-phone "blackspots". The boards will allow the council, emergency services and community groups to display essential information for the community during and following future events.

The Hobart City, Kingborough, Derwent Valley and Glenorchy City councils were also funded to provide training aimed at building community capacity to respond in future emergency situations. Thanks to the same funding source, the Australian Red Cross has provided a "Disaster Ready" workshop and a "Communicating in Recovery" workshops for community organisations and leaders in the Derwent Valley area.

The Derwent Catchment Project was successful in obtaining a grant for a project titled "Building a More Resilient Derwent Valley Community." The organisation aims to increase the local community's resilience and capacity to respond to future events by:

• developing a series of fact sheets and short videos, and hosting workshops demonstrating how to manage flood and extreme weather events;
• comprehensive mapping and survey of each river system to identify work required to increase resilience for future events;
• public consultation on issues arising from the mapping survey and action plans; and,
• building local networks and increasing the community's knowledge and understanding of how to respond to flood events and their associated impacts.

The Community Recovery and Resilience Grants program will provide $500,000 for various projects to deliver recovery and resilience-building projects in communities severely affected by the Southern Tasmania Extreme Weather Event which occurred in May 2018. The grants program is part of the Community Recovery Fund, jointly-funded by the Federal and State governments.