Community creates Emergency Network in the aftermath of severe storms
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Hill and Ridge Emergency Network Planning Day (Credit: Patrick Rychner)
In the aftermath of the 2021 storms the Red Hill Fire Brigade worked with local agencies and residents to create the Hill and Ridge Emergency Network.
The Network has been meeting regularly since October 2023 and brings together community groups, business owners, educators, agency representatives and local emergency services to improve community knowledge and skills to prepare and respond to disaster events.
Red Hill Fire Brigade Captain Sam Norris said the area was impacted by a major storm in October 2021.
“We lost power and all communications for between four and seven days. People couldn’t call Triple Zero and so the brigade and all the locals banded together,” Samuel said.
“We cleared roads and made access for emergency services to get into Red Hill. The community did a great job but there were gaps in the initial response that we thought this network could fix. That was the trigger point for it.
“In the last event, we had a woman who just had twins who were under a week old and she was stuck in her house for five days with no power. We also had a few elderly