Last week Kate Washington hosted the final Storm Emergency & Recovery Community Feedback Forum at Karuah and District RSL Club to receive some final feedback about the super storm’s that hit the region back in April.

A number of local group representatives attended to discuss ways on how to improve emergency situations in the future, where it was described as not a matter of if, but a matter of when there will be a repeat of the April storm’s, with scientific findings predicting whilst the rest of the country gets warmer, our region will be getting wetter.

The main focus of the meeting was how council and the electorate could work better with the community in ways of communication for medical emergencies and getting important information across to the public when all other communications are down.

Other items on the agenda were how to improve on emergency response, if locals had all communications back up and running, as well as if there were any delays with insurance companies.

Karuah Working Together had held a local meeting leading up to the Feedback Forum to discuss the most important factors to put forward to the Port Stephens MP, and the biggest issue was to have a designated Emergency Evacuation Centre in the event of an emergency.

Karuah and District RSL Manager Ross Parr said, “He had already put his hand up to use the RSL Club as an Evacuation Centre before the storms, but just hadn’t received the approval prior to the unprecedented weather event”, but in ensight to be fully equipped we would need a large generator, access to water, showers installed and a satellite phone which I have looked into.”

“Clubs pay high Gaming Machine Tax into the ClubGRANTS Category 3 Fund, which is intended to support the development and enhancement of sport, health and community infrastructure projects across NSW,” Mr Parr said.

Port Stephens MP Kate Washington told Myall Coast News, “That is definitely something I can put forward to parliament tomorrow, and find out what we need to do to receive such a grant, I will also be working more closely with authorities on how to better emergency responses in the future.”

“I will also be focusing on how we can provide the community with feedback and my progress, such as community notice boards, social media, and more correspondence with local media such as Myall Coast News of the area,“ Ms Washington said.