Preparedness is the ability to be ready for, or to anticipate action, in response to or recovery from the risk of an emergency occurring.
Emergency Management in Tasmania has adopted a risk-based approach to planning
Preparedness involves actions to ensure that, as the risk increases or when an emergency happens, communities, resources and services are available and capable of taking appropriate actions for response and recovery. Planning, exercising and lessons management are key to continually improving preparedness and development of capability. Examples of preparedness activities include:
- Developing household emergency plans and preparing emergency kits to last 72 hours
- Critical infrastructure resilience planning and cooperation, undertaken by all levels of government in partnership with the private sector
- Interoperability of systems across the State
- Warning systems for the public, including the national telephone-based warning system – Emergency Alert
- Stockpiling and distribution of essential items, such as generators and medicines
- Education and training programs
- Managing lessons learnt and continually improving preparedness systems.
Agencies will individually and collectively prepare for known, potentially dangerous conditions. This may include pre-positioning scarce resources such as heavy plant, specialists, aircraft and other resources (including incident management teams and personnel) to locations where conditions are likely to become unsafe. Preparedness for disasters also occurs in businesses, industry (including primary producers), the community, neighbourhoods, families and individuals.
