Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate reveals plans for new disaster management centre
The Gold Coast will soon be home to a new $10m disaster management centre capable of withstanding floods and cyclones.
QLD News
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The Gold Coast will soon be home to a new $10 million disaster management centre capable of withstanding a category five cyclone and major flooding.
The Glitter Strip has for years used a facility near one of the city’s main sporting precincts, but modelling showed it would not withstand a major cyclone.
The new facility, already under construction at Ashmore, has been heralded as the most efficient disaster management centre in the southern hemisphere, a virtually floodproof bunker with capacity to be self-sufficient for more than a week in case of power and water outages.
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate said the state-of-the-art facility was overdue.
“Building for the future is critical as our city will reach a population of one million in the next decade,” he said.
Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon said this week’s heavy rainfall demonstrated why the Gold Coast needs a fit-for-purpose disaster management hub.
“Having a dedicated, central location for our agencies to co-ordinate and respond to emergency situations in real-time is absolutely critical, especially when floods and fires can happen in a matter of minutes,” Ms Scanlon said.
“State government agencies and council already work closely to help our community during emergencies and it’s great we’ve been able to work closely on bringing this project forward.”