Review of response to the thunderstorm asthma event of 21–22 November 2016 – Preliminary Report | Inspector-General for Emergency Management Victoria

All hazards

Risks spanning across multiple hazard types and across the emergency management system.

Biosecurity

Exotic animal and plant disease outbreaks and pest incursions can have significant economic, community and environmental impacts.

Bushfire and other fires

Bushfire and other fires have potential consequences including loss of life and property, and damage to infrastructure and environment.

Climate change

Risks include more days of extreme heat, harsher fire weather, less rainfall and rising sea levels.

Communications disruption

Communications services are crucial in keeping communities safe, connected and informed before, during and after emergencies.

Cyber security and ICT systems failure

Risks relating to the confidentiality, availability, integrity of information and data and disruption of services.

Energy supply disruption

Reliable energy supplies are critical to many social and economic activities.

Flood

Major flood events have occurred in Victoria every 10 to 20 years, with much of the increasing risk created by human settlement.

Hazardous material incident

Potential risks relate to many places where Victoria’s hazardous materials are manufactured, stored, transported, used and disposed.

Heatwave

Heatwaves are considered to be the ‘silent killer’ of extreme weather events and are the leading cause of weather-related deaths in Australia.

Public health emergency

Risks may relate to the delivery of public health services, with impacts on community health and wellbeing and potential for loss of life.

Supply chain disruption

Geopolitical, environmental, economic, societal and infrastructure-related shocks can expose supply chains to wide ranging consequences.

Terrorism and extremism

Attacks carried out by individuals or non-state groups with ideological, political or religious goals can result in loss of life, severe injury and/or material damage.

Water supply disruption

Risks include collection, storage, treatment, delivery, availability and allocation of water for consumption and environmental, recreation and cultural uses.

Workforce and resourcing

Risks may relate to human resource supply and skills to support emergency management operations.

Victoria’s thunderstorm asthma event of 21–22 November 2016 affected the health of thousands of Victorians and sadly, is thought to have contributed to the death of nine people.

The Victorian Government requested the Inspector-General for Emergency Management (IGEM) to identify opportunities to learn from this event in order to improve future preparedness and response arrangements and performance.

While thunderstorm asthma is known to have occurred in Victoria in the past, the events of 21 November were unprecedented in scale.

The rapid onset of this emergency and the scale of its consequences were unprecedented. The event tested the ability of Victoria’s emergency management system to consider and respond to Class 2 emergency health consequences arising from a Class 1 emergency – in this case, a storm.

Government released IGEM’s Review of response to the thunderstorm asthma event of 21–22 November 2016 – Preliminary Report on 1 February 2017.

IGEM's Preliminary Report is available from the link below.

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