oem news - semc.wa.gov.au
TRANSCRIPT
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:• AWARE grants program set to open on 10 March • 2
• City of Mandurah delivers successful AWARE project • 3
• Two flood events proclaimed as ‘eligible disasters’ under WANDRRA so far this summer • 4
• State Risk Project update • 5
• OEM Staff Profile - Bec Pianta • 6
• Policy and Governance review activities for 2017 • 7
• OEM News Submission invitation • 7
CONTACT DETAILS:
OFFICE OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT (OEM)20 Southport Street, West Leederville WA 6007T. (08) 9482 1700
W. www.oem.wa.gov.au E. [email protected] E. Communications Coordinator: [email protected]
Volume 2 Issue 5 – DeCemBeR 2015OEM NEWSOFFICE OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT (OEM) TO RELOCATE IN 2017
VOLUME 4 ISSUE 1 • February 2017
The Office of Emergency Management (OEM) will be relocating during the first half of the 2017 calendar year.
Our new address will be:
Dumas House: Level 1, 2 Havelock Street, West Perth WA 6005.
Our telephone numbers will also change at that time.
Further advice regarding the timing of our relocation and new telephone numbers will be made via our website and a broadcast email to our stakeholders.
February 2017 OEM NEWS VOLUME 4 ISSUE 1
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OEM NEWS
AWARE GRANTS PROGRAM SET TO OPEN ON 10 MARCHThe Office of Emergency Management’s (OEM) signature grant round, the All West Australians Reducing Emergencies (AWARE) program, will soon be open. The grant program aims to enhance WA’s Emergency Management (EM) arrangements by investing in planning and human capacity building at local or district level.
The grants round will be opening on 10 March 2017, and to be eligible, projects must fall into one of the following categories:
• Local Emergency Management Arrangements (LEMA)
• Exercises
• Community education / research
Local and State government agencies can apply, as well as organisations involved in EM. Eligibility criteria as well as other grant information is available on the OEM website,
Website www.oem.wa.gov.auGrant Contact Grants Manager 08 9482 1706 [email protected] Contact The DA in your district:
Kimberley and Pilbara 08 9158 3204 [email protected]
Mid West-Gascoyne 08 9956 6000 [email protected]
Wheatbelt and Goldfields–Esperance 08 9690 2313 [email protected]
Great Southern 08 9845 5007 [email protected]
South West 08 9780 1976 [email protected]
Metropolitan 08 9482 1714 [email protected]
08 9482 1715 [email protected]
with the application form to be released on 10 March 2017.
Applicants can also liaise with their relevant District Emergency Management Advisor (DA) for project specific queries, or the OEM for grant queries. All contact will be registered, and any Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) will be updated on the OEM website.
Please ensure you read all applicant documentation prior to applying, including the Frequently Asked Questions, Guidelines for Applicants, the Quick Eligibility Check and the Sample Grant Agreement.
Applications must be received by 4pm on 27 April 2017.
Key contacts for the AWARE grants round are listed below (note that all contact will be registered, and any Frequently Asked Questions will be updated on the OEM website).
The Office of Emergency Management (OEM) provides AWARE funding to build emergency management capacity within the community.
In the 2016-17 round the City of Mandurah were successful in their application to deliver the Equi-Evac Centre Network to consider the welfare and management of large animals during emergency events.
Following the Waroona bushfires, the Report of the Special Inquiry recognised the community has an expectation that emergency management arrangements provide for a ‘coordinated approach to the management of animals, livestock and wildlife’ (p 229).
During this emergency, many public equestrian facilities generously and informally made their grounds available as a relocation point for horses, identifying that management of large animals in emergencies could be integrated into standard incident management procedures.
The Equi-Evac Centre Network was undertaken by the City of Mandurah to assist the Peel and South West horse communities who may be displaced during disasters.
It identified public equestrian facilities that are suitable as short-term relocation points for horses, and developed guidelines for how this could be managed.
Each facility and respective local government (LG) has now been given a template guideline and sample activation kit for use in an emergency.
These LGs have also been encouraged to note the procedures in their Local Emergency Management Arrangements, while the public equestrian facilities are encouraged to include the procedures within their Rules and Regulations, ensuring regular review and understanding.
An advantage of the City of Mandurah creating the guidelines and activation kit in template form is that other LGs and public equestrian facilities can access this document, allowing for improved capability throughout the state.
For more information on this project, contact City of Mandurah Emergency Management team at [email protected] or call 9550 3777.
CITY OF MANDURAH DELIVERS SUCCESSFUL AWARE PROJECT
Naomi Dekker from City of Mandurah. The Equi-Evac Centre Network identified public equestrian facilities that are suitable as short-term relocation points for horses, and developed guidelines for how this could be managed.
February 2017 OEM NEWS VOLUME 4 ISSUE 1
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OEM NEWS
TWO FLOOD EVENTS PROCLAIMED AS ‘ELIGIBLE DISASTERS’ UNDER WANDRRA SO FAR THIS SUMMER Two natural hazard events have been proclaimed as eligible disasters under the Western Australia Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (WANDRRA) so far in 2017.
The two events were:1. Flooding in Western Australia (January and February 2017).
This event was proclaimed an eligible disaster under WANDRRA on 13 February 2017.
Description of event: Large parts of the state (covering 88 local government areas) received significant rainfall, with record levels being recorded in several locations.
The tropical low over the Kimberley was responsible for the rain in that area and then as the low tracked through the Pilbara it was to become the moisture source for the rain band that impacted the south and south west of Western Australia.
An upper level trough moving out of the Southern Ocean linked with the moisture from the tropical low and hence we saw the widespread heavy rainfall. The resulting floods were undoubtedly enhanced because catchments were saturated due previous rainfall across much of the same areas.
OEM website links for this event:
The Proclamation Notification
News and Updates
Joint Media Statement
2. Tropical Low and Flooding in the Pilbara (26 December 2016).
This event was proclaimed an eligible disaster under WANDRRA on 24 January 2017.
Description of event: A tropical low tracked over the Kimberley and then moved south eastwards over the Kiwirrkurra area in the Shire of East Pilbara. The Kiwirrkurra indigenous community was affected and required supplies
of fuel, food and medicine to be airlifted in by the Hazard Management Agency.
OEM website links for this event:
The Proclamation Notification
Joint Media Statement
To keep up-to-date with all OEM news, visit our news feed.
About WANDRRAWANDRRA is jointly funded by the State and Commonwealth Governments and administered by the Office of Emergency Management (OEM), with assistance from other agencies.
WANDRRA was previously administered by the Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) until 30 November 2016. WANDRRA provides help to people who have suffered the direct impact of a proclaimed natural disaster event. Assistance is provided via a range of relief measures to assist communities to recover from eligible natural disaster events. To learn more about WANDRRA, including funding information, click here.
Philips River bridge was destroyed by the flooding event that impacted large parts of the state in January and February 2017. Image courtesy of Main Roads.
The Office of Emergency Management (OEM) would like to acknowledge and thank its State Risk Project stakeholders for joining us on the risk assessment workshop journey.
Last year was a momentous year for the project, which gained enormous traction and reached important milestones.
THE DISTRICT LEVEL HAS BEEN COMPLETED!November 2016 marked the completion of the district level risk assessment workshop program (for priority hazards) across all of the State’s emergency management (EM) districts.
Our understanding of major risks (of hazards prescribed in legislation) in WA has grown significantly, largely as a result of the risk data collected in the project’s district phase.
The risk data was collected during multiple risk assessment workshops held in each EM district right around the State.
The risk data is currently being used to compile comprehensive risk reports and risk profiles for each EM district in WA. All EM district reports will be available soon!
STATE LEVEL IN 2017OEM plans to complete the state level phase of the project by the end of 2017.
In the first half of 2017, the following state level workshops will be held:
LOCAL LEVEL COMMENCES!The local level component of the project has begun. Thus far, group workshops have been held in the Great Southern and South West, involving 33 local governments. The aim of the local level phase is to provide training, support and tools to local governments to assist them to undertake the emergency risk management process (as required by existing policy).
For more information about the local-level phase, including dates of upcoming workshops, click here to explore the State Risk Project - Local pages of the OEM website.
STATE RISK PROJECT UPDATE
Gas & Fuel Supply:
2 March
HAZMAT - Radiological:
late April
7 Natural Hazards 2017 Series:
9, 11, 23 & 25 May
Nuclear Powered Warship and Space Re-entry debris:
June/July (tentative)
Rail Crash - Freight:
tbc
February 2017 OEM NEWS VOLUME 4 ISSUE 1
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OEM NEWS
OEM STAFF PROFILE – BEC PIANTAWhat is your role at the Office of Emergency Management (OEM)?
I’m the Grants Manager at the OEM, and look after the Commonwealth and State competitive grants funding for disaster resilience activities in WA.
This includes the NDRP and AWARE programs, as well as funds provided to WA as part of the National Partnership Agreement for Natural Disaster Resilience for state priority projects.
Once projects have been approved, I am
then responsible for managing the individual contracts with each project manager.
The favourite part of your job?
Advising applicants they’ve been successful in their application, and working with them throughout their project to achieve desired objectives.
I appreciate that projects often experience difficulties and have evolving needs, and I’m pleased the OEM allows for a degree of flexibility to get the best outcome for the applicant and for WA.
What is the most challenging part of your role?
Knowing we have only a finite bucket of funds, and having to advise applicants that while their project may have merit, their application was unsuccessful.
Over the next year what key achievements are you targeting?
Following the 2015 Productivity Commission Inquiry into Natural Disaster Funding, the Attorney General’s Department released a paper stating that increased investment in mitigation and betterment will deliver significant benefits, including reduced spend on response and recovery. I’m keen to progress these findings by further developing our funding programs to support high quality, evidence-based investment decision-making to support disaster resilience.
How do you relax when you are not at work?
I’m very energetic, and spend my time running, playing any sport I can, or at the beach. I have a wonderful family who are all just as lively, so my favourite days are those that are busy, loud and entertaining.
OEM Grants Manager Bec Pianta
Look out for OEM News on the OEM website. If you would like to join the OEM mailing list, email [email protected].
EM arrangements in Western Australia are established through a legislative and policy framework, which incorporates a suite of EM documents. Click on the icon above to read and download those documents.
POLICY AND GOVERNANCE REVIEW ACTIVITIES FOR 2017Following consultative activities with stakeholders in 2016, this year the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) will be looking at enhancements to the State emergency management (EM) arrangements.
This will be an exciting opportunity to work with our EM stakeholders and examine potential improvements to the current EM arrangements in Western Australia.
The OEM will be contacting our EM stakeholders and inviting them to participate in the review of specific topics through a variety
of methods, such as: workshops, focus-groups, surveys, interviews and established groups.
Contact will be initiated as soon as the work program has been finalised.
The topics for review in 2017 include the State EM Framework, recovery, exercising, emergency public information and exchange of information.
For more information, or to register to participate in the review of specific EM topics, please send an email to [email protected].
OEM NEWS SUBMISSION INVITATIONIf you have an interesting emergency management story for the OEM newsletter, we’d like to hear from you! Please email your ideas and suggestions to the Publications inbox ([email protected]) for consideration. News articles should be between 100 -300 words. If you have any images that can be included please forward with contributions.
The OEM Newsletter publishing dates for 2017 are:
Publishing date: Articles must be submitted by:
15 May 2017 8 May 2017
15 August 2017 8 August 2017
15 November 2017 8 November 2017