Townsville ready to face cyclone season with state-of-the-art disaster centre
This state-of-the-art natural disaster centre is set to help keep North Queenslanders safe this cyclone season.
Townsville
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TOWNSVILLE emergency services are now able to co-ordinate natural disaster responses from one of the toughest buildings in North Queensland.
The $8.5 million Townsville Local Disaster Co-ordination Centre (LDCC) has been completed in time for the cyclone season.
The Centre was built with 54 tonnes of reinforced steel and almost 650 cubic metres of concretes.
It can withstand a Category 5 cyclone, including winds of up to 300km/h.
The building has backup power generators, water supplies and diesel fuel to ensure emergency services will be able to continue to update residents if a disaster hits.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Mayor Jenny Hill visited the new state-of-the-art centre on Dalrymple Rd, Garbutt today.
“Queensland is no stranger to natural disasters including cyclones, floods and droughts,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“We’ve also seen recently prolonged heatwave conditions which contributed to the worst bushfire emergency to impact our state.”
Ms Palaszczuk said the Centre would be crucial in co-ordinating the local response to disasters.
“While bushfires were burning across the State, at the same time we were also faced with Cyclone Owen as it formed off the north coast,” she said.
“It’s disasters such as this that make LDCCs so important.”
Cr Hill said the project has helped boost the local economy by supporting hundreds of local jobs.
“The project supported more than 250 jobs during its construction which is great for our local economy,” she said.
Cr Hill said the LDCC will be the home of disaster response for future major weather events.
“This state-of-the-art facility will provide all agencies needed to manage a disaster with the space they need when the next major event hits,” she said.
“This has been a great collaboration between all levels of Government to ensure the best possible outcome for the community when a disaster hits.”
Townsville City Council received $1.98 million in funding from the joint Commonwealth-State Natural Disaster Resilience Program.
The LDCC building will also accommodate the North Queensland Regional Data Centre on the ground floor.
Originally published as Townsville ready to face cyclone season with state-of-the-art disaster centre
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