A review conducted by the Office of the Inspector-General Emergency Management (IGEM) into the state’s cyclone and storm tide preparedness has found that there are critical issues that need to be addressed in regards to the state's shelter and disaster management plans, reports The Australian.
According to the report, the review has recommended an audit of every local government area susceptible to storm tides to find 'gaps in evacuation zone planning,' with some councils failing to model risk or organize storm tide evacuation zones. In addition, they have found that councils had 'limited awareness' of a guideline focused on mitigating the impact of cyclones through evacuation and shelter,' that 'risk was not always sufficiently assessed,' and that 'there were examples of a lack of agreement around responsibilities for supporting vulnerable persons to evacuate early and shelter.'