2015-12-08 Infrastructure & Services Committee Agenda

INFRASTRUCTURE & SERVICES COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                            8 DECEMBER 2015


2.   Local Disaster Management Group

The LDMG met on 18 March, 3 June, 8 September and 26 November 2015

The LDMG was activated once during the year on 19 February in response to TC Marcia. During
the event there was some flash flooding and road closures. The only damage identified in the Shire
area was a landslip occurring on Cooroy-Belli Creek Rd.

The Chair of the LDMG and Local Disaster Co-ordinator have reviewed the membership of the
LDMG and have identified the proposed membership for 2016, as per Attachment 1, for Council
consideration.

3.   Local Disaster Co-ordinator and Local Recovery Co-ordinator

As reported to the Infrastructure & Services Committee on 9 December 2014, the transfer of the
LDC role to Martin Drydale occurred on 1 July 2015. Alan (Fox) Rogers became the Deputy LDC
and also took on the role of Local Recovery Co-ordinator. This is an important role which ensures
the co-ordination of resources to provide support to the community in clean up and recovery
operations following an event.

4.   Local Disaster Co-ordination Centre and Disaster Management Training

The Chair and Deputy Chair of the LDMG and LDC were involved in the multi-agency training
exercise ‘Seaweed’ which was held at the Innovation Centre, University of the Sunshine Coast.
The exercise included presentations and a desk top response to a storm surge scenario.

A major exercise was held on 4 and 5 November 2015 involving Noosa, Gympie and Sunshine
Coast LDMGs together with the Sunshine Coast and Gympie District Disaster Groups. The
exercise was based on significant bushfires affecting all three LDMGs and tested all LDCCs multi-
agency co-ordination and communications together with evacuation centre management on 4
November. This was followed up by a gathering of senior LDMG and District Disaster Management
Group (DDMG) members at Gympie on 5 November to debrief from the exercise.

In addition to the exercises, Guardian training has been provided to all new and existing Local
Disaster Coordination Centre (LDCC) volunteers. Five Council staff attended Evacuation Centre
Management training in Gympie and 14 new LDCC volunteers attended Disaster Co-ordination
Centre training.

5.   Emergency Operations Team

As well as being responsible for co-ordinating disaster operations of all emergency services during
an event Council is required under the Act to maintain a response capability in order to:

“provide equipment and a suitable number of trained persons, using the resources available to the
local government, to effectively deal with, or help another entity deal with, an emergency situation
or a disaster in the local governments area”.

In order to meet this responsibility an Emergency Operations Team (EOT) operates to develop and
co-ordinate Council’s emergency response capability. The group is chaired by Allan Hull and meets
every six to eight weeks. The EOT was activated once in the year in response to TC Marcia.




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