BEING ready for storms, floods and marine tsunamis was the focus of first-response agencies when they came together recently at Coffs Harbour.

Nambucca was well represented – representatives from RFBI, EACH, Open Arms Care and Australian Unity were at the State Emergency Service disaster-planning workshop.

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In collaboration with Healthy North Coast, the aim of the workshops was to learn about first-response agencies, to build connections with them and understand the local considerations when it comes to planning for disasters such as storms, flash and riverine floods and marine tsunamis – all being specific to the Mid North Coast region.

NSW SES community capability officer Scott McLennan explained some of the planning and considerations when preparing for natural disasters.

Particularly with aged-care facilities, he said, there were issues such as staffing and how to keep them operating during an emergency.

There was a need for earlier evacuation processes, and if some staff stayed in situ plans were needed for managing that facility, for example, can staff get in or out and are there enough supplies, food and medications?

“There’s a big push especially for National Disability Insurance Scheme providers to ensure all their participants have appropriate disaster management plans”, Mr McLennan told News of the Area.

“We’ve noticed since 2017 that these people [people in aged care] were at risk of being left behind, as the NDIS world is quite disparate.”

Data that came out of floodings throughout NSW was that 60 percent of people who are told to evacuate do not evacuate and of that 60 percent, about 20-to-30 percent needed rescuing.

“That’s a huge burden on the mental health of residents, visitors, friends and family and we need to work together with them so they understand the risk and for us to mitigate that risk as best as possible,” said Mr McLennan.

“Connectivity is also a big issue as we are very reliant on our mobile networks and our internet capabilities and in recent events we’ve lost those – so if the power and phones are cut off, paper backup processes are vital,” said Christine McDonald, deputy north east zone commander.

“This event starts the ball rolling and the staff that have come are open to the conversation and it’s great to see them being so proactive,” she said.

By Mary KEILY