Residents asked to participate in emergency resilience survey

4 March, 2014Posted in: Environment
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Hall Rd bush fire

Wingecarribee Shire Council is calling on the Shire’s residents for feedback to help establish how Council can best work with and involve the community in the event of future emergencies.

“One of the major attractions of the Southern Highlands is our natural bushland areas and our abundance of native plants and animals,” said Council’s Bushland Project Officer, Belinda Rowe. “But it is also this proximity to these bushland areas that make our Shire particularly vulnerable in the face of natural hazards.”

“This was perhaps best illustrated with the bushfires that threatened our northern villages only last October.”

Wingecarribee Shire Council in conjunction with the Rural Fire Service (RFS), Fire and Rescue NSW, NSW State Emergency Service (SES), Department of Primary Industries and neighbouring Wollondilly Shire Council have subsequently prepared an Emergency Resilience Survey.

“This survey has been designed to capture information to improve how Council communicates and can assist residents in being more aware and better prepared in the event of future emergencies,” Ms Rowe said.

“Bushfires aren’t of course the only hazards that have threatened our Shire in the past,” Ms Rowe added. “This survey has been extended to cover a range of natural disasters including severe storms and floods.”

Information collected from the survey will be used to assist Council in how to improve communication with the community when preparing for an emergency and should the need arise, how to better share potentially life-saving information during a crisis.

Some 2000 randomly selected residents will be mailed a survey and asked to participate.

“In addition to the mail outs, we’re asking people to complete the survey online because ultimately, the more people who respond, the more accurate our data will be when it comes to us having to prepare for a future emergency.”

Surveys can be found online at www.surveymonkey.com/s/EmergencyResilience.

Surveys will take approximately 20 minutes to complete and should be completed by Friday 4 April 2014.

For more information contact Council’s Bushland Projects Officer on phone 4868 0819 or email at wscmail@wsc.nsw.gov.au.