59 / 70
59
Emergency management
Emergency management is a core element of public
health planning. The governance and focus of emergency
management has changed in a significant way in recent years
– and all agencies’ roles ( including Councils’) have accordingly
evolved from being structured to simply ‘respond’ to incidents,
toward a ‘prevention, preparedness, response and recovery’
approach.This is reflected in the City Plan’s Objective 6 -
“A state of preparedness for environmental disasters in
collaboration with the community and key stakeholders ”
The State is divided into Emergency Management Zones,
overseen by a Zone Emergency Management Committee
(ZEMC). Port Adelaide Enfield Council is in two Zones –
Western Adelaide and Northern Adelaide. Zone-specific
Emergency Management Plans are currently (2015) being
finalised for each Zone, following a comprehensive program of
risk assessment, which Council has directly participated in via
staff involvement from a range of professional backgrounds.
Local Government Authorities (Council) are designated in the
State Emergency Management Plan to play an active role in a
range of emergency management functions – including -
• planning as part of the ZEMCs,
• evacuations,
• traffic management in evacuations or response activities,
• provision of functional transport when required,
• provision of environmental health services and response
actions,
• assisting with management and recovery in the case of
major urban fires and release of hazardous materials,
• protection and restoration of essential infrastructure such
as roads and bridges,
• co-ordination in the management and removal of waste
materials in the recovery phase
Councils also play a voluntary role in assisting public
communications in emergency situations, such as assisting
the Red Cross with contacting known vulnerable groups
in a heatwave.
A focus of the State EM Plan is the identification and
protection of the State’s ‘critical infrastructure’ – this is of
particular relevance to Port Adelaide Enfield given the
presence of several power generation stations and distribution
networks, interstate gas supply infrastructure, the State’s export
and other port facilities, road and rail freight infrastructure, the
bulk of the State’s petroleum fuel supply points and storage
facilities, and the Techport defence precinct.
The 4 priorities have been established for the two regions.
The priority hazards are -
1.
Extreme weater events including heatwaves
2.
Flooding from seawater or stormwater
(including sea level rise)
3.
Urban fires and hazardous spills in theWestern Zone and
Bushfire in the Northern Zone
4.
Earthquake