Preparing for an Emergency

Before you are faced with an emergency, there are many considerations you need to make. What do you take with you? Do you have a plan for your animals? Where is your medication? Consider the important decisions and write a plan before you are faced with an emergency.

After you have created your plan, make sure your family and household understand the plan and know their role in an emergency. This might even include people outside of your household such as your neighbours and local community group.

Resources for creating a plan

Need some help to make your plan? Below are some helpful resources and templates. Choose one that's right for you or use them to create your own.

If you are a business owner you may have staff or customers to consider when a bushfire, flood or storm hits. View the information below to get started thinking about protecting your business.

• Emergency management for businesses

People who don’t have insurance or who are underinsured find it very difficult to rebuild their lives without it. Make sure to check your policy every year to ensure that your policy provides you with enough cover to rebuild to a standard that you are comfortable with.

Underinsuring is a common problem. It might mean home owners need to borrow extra money to rebuild, or compromise on the type of home they want such as size or features.

A bushfire, flood or other emergency could destroy driveways, retaining walls, gardens, sheds, fencing, swimming pools and more. Call your insurance broker or insurance company to discuss your policy limits and coverage.

Know what your policy covers

Will your policy cover accommodation, removal of debris or demolition costs? These details matter. Understand if you have a replacement cost policy that pays to replace all your items at current market price or an actual cash value policy that takes depreciation into account and pays less for aged items.

Make a home inventory

Rebuilding a replacing lost items is easier if you have an accurate home inventory. Here are some methods you could use to document the contents of your home before an emergency occurs:

• Use your smartphone to video/photograph your belongings
• Take a walk and video the outside of your property as well, fences, retaining walls, shed, garages and their contents
• Keep your inventory & photos at another location to your home or store this information online

Council’s Municipal Fire Prevention Officers (MFPO”s) inspect properties within the Southern Grampians Shire Council annually and issue Fire Prevention Notices to those properties which require work. See information on Fire Prevention Notices here.

The CFA has a number of fire safety resources to help you and the community prepare for fire.

• Understand how the Fire Danger Rating Scale can alert you to fire danger.
• Learn more about rules for Total Fire Ban days with Can I Can't I
• Keep your family safe from indoor fires and check out Home Fire Safety advice.
• Information to help you know how to protect yourself and your property from Grassfires in Urban Areas.
• Your Guide to Survival provides you with information on how to stay informed on fire risk days, why you should leave early, what information to gather ahead of fire season for you and your family, understand what to expect during a bushfire and guidance on how to stay informed of fires across your area.
• Learn more about your local Places of Last Resort.

SES has a range of information about Southern Grampians Shire including a local flood guide for Hamilton. They also have a FloodSafe guide to plan and prepare for floods that covers; types of flooding including riverine and flash flooding, weather warnings, preparing an emergency plan, what you can do to stay safe, evacuation and a flood checklist.