Samantha Colwell

Resilience NSW · company speakers →

In 2019-20, bushfires were quickly followed by floods and COVID-19. Resilience NSW and partner agencies opened approximately 100 evacuation centres, where around 30,000 evacuees were registered, and more than 8,000 people were placed in emergency commercial accommodation. A scale not seen before in NSW. In this session, Samantha delved into the challenges faced with the management of 100 evacuation centres, particularly in tourist destinations during the holiday season. She shared lessons learnt managing the evacuation as well as the expectations of the industry, the government and the community. In addition to recommendations from the bushfire enquiry (that included increased training), a COVID-19 Supplement to the Evacuation Management Guidelines was developed additional risk controls that reduce the likelihood of COVID-19 spreading among evacuees.

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