SEMP Storm Sub-Plan

Purpose 

This plan outlines the Victorian arrangements for managing storm across all emergency management phases, and replaces the State Emergency Response Plan – Storm Sub-Plan Edition 1 published in May 2016.

The plan’s purpose is to provide sources of information and to outline the arrangements for ensuring an integrated and coordinated approach to the State’s management of storm events, to reduce the impact and consequences of these events on the community, infrastructure and services. This supports a comprehensive, integrated and coordinated approach and reflects a shared responsibility for storm related emergency management.

Objective 

Victoria’s state-level emergency risk assessment, Emergency Risks in Victoria, was published in 2020 and sets out Victoria’s emergency risk profile. Storms were assessed as a state significant risk, meaning significant storms were assessed as being a critical and credible scenario for the State.

In alignment with the State Emergency Management Plan (SEMP), this plan contextualises the current arrangements, roles and responsibilities for storm mitigation, preparedness, response (including relief) and recovery.

The Victoria State Emergency Service (VICSES) on behalf of the Emergency Management Commissioner (EMC) coordinated the development of this plan in conjunction with the following primary stakeholders: 

• Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP).
• Bureau of Meteorology (BOM). 
• Department of Health.
• Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH). 
• Local Government Victoria. 
• Municipal Association of Victoria.

Consultation was conducted with a range of other emergency management agencies.

Scope

Storms, in the context of this plan, include windstorms, dust storms, tornadoes, snowstorms, storm tides, and blizzards, as well as severe thunderstorms including hailstorms and heavy rain leading to flash flooding. 

This plan acknowledges the often-concurrent emerging threats and consequences including epidemic thunderstorm asthma, coastal storm surges, and electricity, water, transport, and telecommunication service disruptions.

The scope of this plan includes:

• Description of potential risks and consequences of storms to the social, built, economic, and natural environments.
• The policy and programs in place to mitigate these risks before, during, and after a storm event.
• The positions with accountability and the agencies responsible for managing specific strategies.
• The multi-agency management arrangements at the national, state, regional and local levels.
• Links to sources of information where the reader can obtain further detail.

References are made to the SEMP where necessary to avoid duplication. It does not include detail about the operational activities of individual agencies.

Audience

This plan recognises that emergency management and supporting communities to be safer and more resilient, is the shared responsibility of all Victorians, not just the emergency management sector. 

The audience for this plan comprises the Victorian Government and agencies within the emergency management sector, including business and community groups with a significant role in the mitigation of, response to, and recovery from storms.