Northern Victorian Cluster - Municipal Heatwave Plan
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Northern Victorian Cluster - Municipal Heatwave Plan Sub Plan prepared February 2018 Template Prepared by Central Victorian Greenhouse Alliance for Buloke, Central Goldfields, Gannawarra, Loddon, Macedon Ranges and Mount Alexander shire councils who participated in the Resilient Community Assets Heat Health project and City of Greater Bendigo who was involved in the early stages of the project. The Resilient Community Assets Project — a partnership between the Victorian Government and six local councils. Version Control Date Version Details Officer April 2016 2 New Municipal Heatwave Plan Central Victorian Greenhouse template developed Alliance July 2016 2.1 Draft Municipal Heatwave Plan Mount Alexander Shire - developed for Heatwave Working Emergency Management Group Coordinator October 2016 2.2 Further devp. Mount Alexander Shire - Climate Change Coordinator November 2016 2.3 Municipal Heatwave Workshop Mount Alexander Shire - held – further development Climate Change Coordinator and Emergency Management Team November 2016 3.0 Final Version Mount Alexander Shire - Emergency Management Coordinator May 2017 3.1 Additional developments and Mount Alexander Shire - transition to Northern Victorian Emergency Management Cluster Sub Plan Coordinator June 2017 3.2 Campaspe Shire information Mount Alexander Shire - added Emergency Management Coordinator Abbreviations ABS Australian Bureau of Statistics AV Ambulance Victoria BOM Bureau of Meteorology CDCH Castlemaine District Community Health CH Castlemaine Health CSU Councils “Customer Service Unit” DHHS Department of Health and Human Services DoJ Department of Justice EMCOP Emergency Management Common Operating Picture EMV Emergency Management Victoria HACC Home and Community Care MERC Municipal Emergency Response Coordinator MERO Municipal Emergency Resource Officer MRM Municipal Recovery Manager OH&S Occupational Health and Safety SEIFA Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas VicPol Victoria Police VPR Vulnerable Persons Register 2 Contents Version Control..................................................................................................................................... 2 Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................................ 2 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 4 2. Why have a plan? ........................................................................................................................ 5 State context and guidelines .............................................................................................................. 5 Heatwave and heat health within local government planning framework ....................................... 5 3. Heatwave terminology ................................................................................................................. 6 Heatwave ............................................................................................................................................ 6 Heat Event .......................................................................................................................................... 6 Extreme heat ...................................................................................................................................... 6 Heat health temperature thresholds ................................................................................................. 6 4. How heat affects our health and communities ........................................................................ 7 Health impacts of heatwaves ............................................................................................................. 7 Impacts of heat wave ......................................................................................................................... 7 5. Roles and Responsibilities ....................................................................................................... 10 Heat health alerts ............................................................................................................................. 10 Emergency management .................................................................................................................. 11 6. Prevention, Preparedness, Response and Recovery .......................................................... 13 7. How this plan was developed .................................................................................................. 14 8. Local weather / climate statistics ............................................................................................. 15 North Central District ....................................................................................................................... 15 North Country District ...................................................................................................................... 17 9. What we are going to do ........................................................................................................... 19 10. Stage 1: Longer term prevention and mitigation actions ..................................................... 20 11. Stage 2: Pre summer preparation actions ............................................................................. 21 12. Stage 3: Preparation immediately before forecast extreme heat events .......................... 24 13. Stage 4: Extreme heat event response actions .................................................................... 26 14. Stage 5: Post event recovery actions ..................................................................................... 27 15. Communications plan ................................................................................................................ 28 16. Evaluation process .................................................................................................................... 30 17. Items for future reviews ............................................................................................................. 31 18. Appendices ................................................................................................................................. 32 Municipal profile – Mount Alexander ............................................................................................... 35 Demographics ................................................................................................................................... 35 Vulnerable Groups ............................................................................................................................ 36 Municipal profile - Loddon ................................................................................................................ 37 Demographics ................................................................................................................................... 37 Vulnerable Groups ............................................................................................................................ 38 Municipal profile – Central Goldfields ............................................................................................. 39 Demographics ................................................................................................................................... 39 Vulnerable Groups ............................................................................................................................ 40 Municipal profile – City of Greater Bendigo ................................................................................... 41 Demographics ................................................................................................................................... 41 Vulnerable Groups ............................................................................................................................ 42 Municipal profile - Campaspe .......................................................................................................... 43 Demographics ................................................................................................................................... 43 Vulnerable Groups ............................................................................................................................ 44 3 1. Introduction The impacts of extreme heat have been assessed as a significant risk facing the State of Victoria (DoJ 2014). In the last 200 years, extreme heat events have taken more lives than any other natural hazard in Australia (BoM 2015). In Victoria, the duration, frequency and intensity of heatwaves are expected to increase as a result of climate change. (Steffen et al 2014). ‘Three days or more of high maximum and minimum temperatures that are unusual for that location’ constitute a heatwave according to the Bureau of Meteorology in their Heatwave service for Australia. However the risks of high temperature extremes occur in any extreme heat event. Heatwaves or extreme heat events can have significant impacts on human health and life. Two recent heat events in Victoria resulted in large numbers of deaths. In the 2009 heatwave an estimated 374 excess deaths occurred, much greater than the 173 deaths arising from the Black Saturday bushfires the following week. In the 2014 heatwave there were 167 excess deaths. Excess deaths