As parts of New South Wales begin to experience a 1 in 100 year flooding, there are a number of critical flood response considerations that Risk and Emergency Managers may need to consider in our changed operating environment, where many people are working from home.
We have outlined immediate flood response considerations below to assist.
If you or your organisation need any assistance, Catalyst Technologies’ rapid response team are on stand-by to assist.
Complimentary Rapid Response
If your organisation is currently being impacted by the NSW Flooding events, and you are NOT currently a customer, we can support your organisation with:
- Complimentary access to CQ/iluminr for 30 days including our mass communications module
- Access to rapid onboarding and training in basic functions
- SMS charged at pass through rate of $0.10 per message
Our team can have you set up in iluminr, in minutes.
Immediate Flood Response Considerations
1. Establish access to up to date and credible information
The following websites can provide up to date and credible information on the evolving nature of the event:
- https://www.abc.net.au/emergency/
- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-21/sydney-weather-live-bom-evacuation-warnings-flooding/100019438
- https://www.ses.nsw.gov.au/news/
ABC Radio will also provide local intelligence on the situation as it changes in each region.
2. Connect with your staff
Connecting with your staff during an escalating event will not only enable your team to provide support to those who need it most, but also focus resources and assess any critical functions that might be impacted.
Remember, staff who perform critical functions, in a Work from Home arrangement, may be impacted this coming week. Its Sunday, so email or MS Teams chat today might not cut it – access the communication module and send an SMS out today to get the right attention.
First contact: Welfare check
Using the communications module, consider sending a simple welfare check SMS to your staff to confirm their safety. This is paramount. Sending this via a polling SMS, will enable you to triage your support instantly.
Click here for a welfare message template that you can use in iluminr
Click here for a welfare message template that you can use in iluminr
Second contact: Impact assessment
In a second communication with your staff, please request them to provide any feedback as to whether they believe their ability to perform standard duties of work this coming week, to be impacted. This should take into account the closure of schools and inability to travel to the CBD.
Click here for an impact assessment message template that you can use in iluminr
Click here for an impact assessment message template that you can use in iluminr
This message should be directed to those staff who have been identified as safe and not needing immediate support, for which your ongoing communication should be tailored and personalised to the context of their situation.
3. Initiate a critical event room (regardless if you are currently in an emergency or not)
Initiate a critical event room in CQ/iluminr, to empower your team to:
- Record facts of the event centrally
- Conduct an incident assessment to assess the situation in relative context to your organisation. This will provide guidance as to the level of required response and which teams may need to be activated.
- Connect staff and customer communications to the specific event
- Assess impacts: People, Operational, Environmental, Financial, Regulatory
- Collect and centralise facts as they come through from your teams
- Delegate and manage response tasks centrally. Tasks will automatically be messaged to recipients via SMS to ensure immediate attention is received.
4. Access your critical function and supplier lists and assess your situation
Review your critical functions and critical supplier lists within your Business Continuity Plans, against those staff and suppliers that may be impacted either immediately or in the coming days. Consider current and potential power outages, school closures and connectivity issues.
Record impacts in the Impact Assessment and take note of any issues in the Information board in CQ / iluminr.
Consider any contingency strategies to be recorded as tasks in the information board.
