Public health advice for disaster management
Planning for an evacuation centre needs to address many public health concerns. These include food, water, space, sanitation and hygiene requirements to:
- maintain the health of evacuees and staff
- minimise the risk of an outbreak of a communicable disease
- maintain food safety.
Guidelines
- Queensland Evacuation Guidelines
- NSW Health—Major Evacuation Centres: Public Health Consideration
- Red Cross Australia
Food safety
Food safety principles need to be followed when preparing food for people within evacuation centres. The Food safety in emergency evacuation centres booklet has been developed to help staff.
Posters
- Hints for refrigerating food in evacuation centres
- Preparing and storing food in evacuation centres
- Stay healthy in disasters wash your hands
- Make drinking water safe
- Stay safe during clean up
- Wash hands regularly
- Don't get bitten by mosquitos
- Food safety in an emergency
- Staying safe and healthy in hot weather
- Tips for keeping food safe in extremely hot weather
Fact sheets
Fire
- Asbestos and fire damaged buildings
- Drawing from bushfire-impacted waters
- Bushfire fighting water additives and health
- Bushfires and roof-harvested rainwater
- Bushfires—staying safe during clean up
- Bushfires—staying safe and healthy in smoky conditions
- Bushfires and swimming pools
- Drawing from bushfire-impacted waters
Storms, floods and cyclones
Recovery
- Medicines in a disaster - accessing medicines
- Medicines in a disaster - managing medicines
- Medicines in a disaster - storage of evacuee’s personal medicines in evacuation centres
- Mould - dealing with mould after a storm, flood or cyclone
- Returning to a disaster-affected house or building
- Restoring flood affected domestic swimming pools and spa pools
- Stay safe and healthy after storms, floods and cyclones
- Playgrounds and sporting fields - use during flood recovery
- Disease prevention - Human health and animal carcass disposal
- Disease prevention - PPE disposal following handling of animal carcasses
Flies and mosquitoes
- Black flies—a public health risk after a flood
- Mosquito - controlling mosquito breeding after floods, storms and cyclones
- Mosquito-borne diseases after a storm, flood or cyclone
Food safety
Water safety
Heat-related
General health and disaster management
Last updated: 3 March 2022
