Council urged to prepare for future extreme weather events

That is the message of Southcoast Health and Sustainability Alliance (SHASA) as they call on Council to be prepared for extreme weather events in the future.

In a speech at Council's first public access session, SHASA President Kathryn Maxwell called on council to partner with the community to better prepare for heat waves and bushfires.

SHASA specifically want to prepare for heatwaves because "they are the most dangerous events for health and wellbeing," Ms Maxwell said.

"Heat waves are known as the silent killer: they're more dangerous than other natural hazards," she said.

"People who are most at risk are elderly, disabled, outdoor workers, pregnant women [and] young children - a big demographic of the Shire."

Ms Maxwell hopes council will support two major goals: upgrading evacuation centres and establishing heat wave and bushfire havens in every town.

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SHASA has already established fire havens in the Eurobodalla - two in Moruya with plans for Tilba and Narooma in 2022 - however these centres aren't equipped to deal with the significant community numbers that require protection during a crisis.

Council established evacuation centres in major towns throughout the Eurobodalla during 2019/20, such as at Hanging Rock in Batemans Bay, and at Moruya showground.

It is "absolutely vital" these evacuation centres are upgraded, according to Ms Maxwell.

"They need temperature control," she said. "They need air filtering. People work in these centres for days. We've got to have proper toilet facilities so we don't get gastric outbreaks and all the myriad of challenges that occurred last time."

The evacuation centre at Moruya Showground experienced a gastric outbreak during the 2019/20 bushfires.

"What we don't want is people who are normally healthy, becoming unhealthy because they spent days in an overheated putrid-air facility," she said.

Ms Maxwell said the Moruya evacuation centre during Black Summer bushfires was "awful".

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"There was no filtration, no movement of air, no nothing," she said. "It was 10 degrees warmer than outside."

Air filtration is so important in evacuation centres because thick smoke and heat impacts everybody, not just the old or vulnerable.

The fires caused increased cases of asthma, impacted pregnant women and their unborn children and caused chest issues in people who hadn't previously suffered chest problems, according to research by the SHASA team.

SHASA's second goal for Council is to create fire and heatwave havens in every town throughout the Eurobodalla.

During the 2019/20 bushfires, residents of Bodalla were instructed to travel to Moruya for safety, however the road was cut off.

"People can't necessarily get into the three big towns," Ms Maxwell said.

SHASA hopes community halls scattered throughout the Eurobodalla can be fitted to act as havens in crisis, acting as a shire-wide network of safety.

Ms Maxwell wants to see all Eurobodalla residents, especially the frail or at risk, with access to a nearby haven.

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While these are two major goals SHASA is pursuing, Ms Maxwell shared some smaller goals that would act to mitigate heat waves and make the Eurobodalla more livable.

Small initiatives SHASA proposed include increasing urban shade through planting fast-growing shade trees in town centres and encouraging shop owners to have awnings, facilitating street planting days throughout the Eurobodalla, or increasing shade in carparks through installing shade structures or creating solar carparks powering EV charging stations.

Ms Maxwell sees SHASA as a group who " who look over the horizon".

"Let's not wait until people are actually dying of heat waves," she said. "Let's get ourselves ready."

"We believe in planning and preparing, and that's what this is about."