Aftermath

This week we had a formal debrief of the Sydney State Enquiry Centre that was set up for the Victorian Bushfires. 

 

The scale of the emergency really sunk in... it was easily Australia’s biggest emergency with something like 5 times the number of people affected compared to Cyclone Tracey. With 145 Red Cross personnel there was something in the vicinity of 22,000 enquiries, 21,000 people registered and nearly 7,000 people were matched with registrations.

 

In all there were 5 SECs opened in Melbourne, Canberra, Perth, Adelaide, plus Sydney.  Considering how quickly the events unfolded I think it was a great effort to get so many volunteers in place so quickly.

 

When the fires really took hold on Saturday and Sunday, Red Cross had the Sydney call centre activated by Monday morning and was open for several days. Everyone was quite overwhelmed as to the scale of the disaster and it really didn’t sink in until the debrief.  

We also had a Personal Support Team Leader meeting straight after the debrief, yes it was long day with multiple Red Cross meetings. We heard about the future direction of Personal Support and how we can encourage new members plus also retain the ones we have so far. 

 

Personal Support is really starting to get a full head of steam now with a new injection of volunteers and new plans for increased cooperation between agencies.

 

These new plans include exercises combined with other teams and agencies, and increased responsibilities for the volunteers in both duty and training roles.

 

From a personal perspective I think it’s now an opportune time for Red Cross volunteering and indeed all volunteering agencies in the wake of the devastation in Victoria.

 

Despite the tragedy it became clearly evident the generosity of Australians from all walks of life wanting to help out.

 

Maybe we can get an even stronger volunteer base so we will be even better prepared for future extreme weather events? 

 

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