City to stage major disaster exercise
Date published: 30 November 2015
Townsville Local Disaster Management Group chair Mayor Cr Jenny Hill said this week’s Exercise Trojan Horse (Wednesday) would be one of the biggest joint disaster exercises ever conducted in the city.
"This is the first time the city has ever staged a joint exercise of this scale, involving all of the major emergency services, the police, and the Townsville City Council," Cr Hill said.
"Townsville has comprehensive local disaster management plans and this will be an excellent opportunity to put everyone through their paces in a real time simulated disaster event.
"This experience will be invaluable for ensuring we have highly effective disaster management arrangements in place for the city.
"The actual details of the joint exercise are being kept under wraps to fully test disaster management responses.
"But we do know a simulated disaster scene will be set up in the Oonoonba and Idalia area involving fire and rescue, rural fire brigade, SES, ambulance service, council, Ergon Energy and police.
"Letters have been sent to residents in the area advising them of the exercise and that they will see an increased presence of emergency services and may even get people visiting their house."
"We certainly want people to be aware, but not to get alarmed when they see a considerable amount of activity on the night.
"While the exercise will be extremely important to fine tune disaster responses, it’s a good time to remind residents to update their household plans for cyclones and other emergencies."
