Council's role in emergencies

In an emergency, we support response agencies such as Victoria Police and coordinate relief and recovery efforts within our region.

In an emergency we:

• Activate the municipal emergency control centre which is a location from which, relief and recovery activities are coordinated
• Activities may include opening and operating our emergency relief centres for displaced residents. Services may include assistance with food and clothing, temporary accommodation, personal support services and access to grants or financial aid
• Other activities include impact assessment, road/tree clearing, traffic management support, animal welfare related services, volunteer/donations coordination and assisting the distribution of warnings and information to the public and media
• We assist in ongoing recovery activities with affected communities. Such as; clean up and infrastructure restoration, building and environmental health assessment,  provision of information, management of recovery centres and establishment / support of community recovery committees and associated recovery programs

To prepare and prevent emergencies we:

• Prepare the Municipal Emergency Management Plan which includes specific sub plans for fires, floods, heatwaves and pandemics
• Implement relevant local government legislation (eg. fire, health, building and planning)
• Assess hazards and undertake appropriate preventative measures, like private property fire hazard inspections
• Work with agencies to identify community shelter options, such as neighbourhood safer places and community fire refuges
• Provide support to community resilience building programs
• Work with other councils across the Barwon South West to increase our capacity and capability to respond in an emergency