Hello and welcome to this week's Council Connect. Alexandria Carruthers here, Councillor and Deputy Mayor.
So what a week it has been, we've got a bit of a weather situation happening! First of all, just a massive, big thank you to our council crews and the SES volunteers working around the clock to keep our community safe and updated. The SES has two rotational crews based in Dungog, and the council has a minimum of two on-call crews working with all emergency services around the clock. So a big thank you to them.
We've seen many of our council facilities closed for most of the week, including the Library, Service Centre, and our Waste Facility. We know this is not great, but we can't control the weather, so we just pivot and do what we can. We've also seen our schools close this week, and impacts to rail services. We've also had a number of evacuations.
Thank you to those who have listened to and followed the advice of the emergency services teams. It's really important that we follow the advice when it's given. They're there to keep us safe. That's their only objective. We've got an evacuation centre set up at the Dungog Memorial RSL for those who need it. So, if you do need it, please use it.
The Dungog Showground is also currently set up for livestock. So, if you have livestock that needs to be moved out of floodwaters, it's available for you.
Please remember, if you need help, call the SES on 132 500. That's what that line's there for. It's for you to call if you need help, and triple zero if there is a life-threatening situation that you're in. So that's 000, which will our emergency services directly.
We have a number of closed roads and flooding, which has disrupted garbage collection services. We've been working closely with JR Richards, and you will have seen notifications on Facebook about this. We're doing our best to provide updates on what that looks like, but again, we have to take it day by day because conditions are constantly changing and that determines what we can do. I do encourage you to keep an eye on our Facebook page for updates. Please keep in mind people who don't have access to Facebook and who might be close to you and help by filtering those messages and information through to them. They'll be appreciative of the updates.
This is a reminder that we're not out of the woods just yet, as the mid-Coast rain may head to the Hunter over the next 24 hours, which is the advice we've received. So please, please, please, continue to check the warnings on the SES page, on our Facebook page, and on the Hazards Near Me app. If you've got to go out on the roads, check the Live Traffic app and check your route before you go.
