The VicEmergency website at emergency.vic.gov.au has been updated for summer to provide the Victorian community with one, centralised location for emergency warnings and information.
The CFA and SES incident and warning pages will now direct to the VicEmergency website, providing better access to information before, during and after an emergency.
Emergency Management Commissioner Craig Lapsley said the focus of the website is to make it easier for the community, so they don’t have to access multiple websites in times of emergency.
“Victorians largely live in a digital world and the VicEmergency website is an important tool for providing localised and relevant information to help people make good decisions about their own safety,” he said.
“Not only is this updated VicEmergency fully mobile responsive, it has undergone extensive community testing to make sure it’s easy to use, and has been tested by Vision Australia to meet online accessibility standards.”
The VicEmergency website brings together emergency information and warnings from agencies including CFA, MFB, SES and DELWP, providing emergency incidents in real time, on a Google Maps display.
It provides information and warnings for fires, hazardous material incidents, storms, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis and traffic hazards. Visitors can also access planning, preparedness and recovery information related to emergencies.
Over the coming months, further features will be added to the site, including the ability for people to create Watch Zones, similar to the FireReady app. This will allow people to tailor which emergency information and warnings they want notifications about, based on their location or area of interest.
Moving in to 2016, there will be further improvements with the addition of relief and recovery information.
Victoria has an integrated warnings system, which publishes community information to multiple channels at the same time.
“The VicEmergency website is just one of the channels available and it’s important that community members have more than one way to access emergency information so they have a fall back if power fails or there is no internet access,” Mr Lapsley said.
Victorians can also get information by tuning in to ABC local radio, or other emergency broadcasters including commercial and community radio stations or SKY TV, by downloading the FireReady App, phoning the Victorian Bushfire Information Line on 1800 240 667or following VicEmergency on Twitter and Facebook.
Emergency Management Victoria manages the VicEmergency website in partnership with Victoria’s emergency management agencies and departments.
Information from Victoria Police and Ambulance Victoria is not currently included on the VicEmergency website.
Author: CFA Media