City gets inside look at leading disaster centre

Gold Coast residents and business will be better protected during a natural disaster, with Mayor Tom Tate taking a first-hand look at one of the most advanced disaster management centres in the world.

The Mayor is in Taipei, as part of the Gold Coast’s celebration of a 36-year Sister Cities relationship with Tainan.

Taipei, with a population of 2.7 million, operates an Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) with the latest smart technology integrated throughout the facility.

“Our city is planning a new disaster management to replace our ageing facility at Queen Street,’’ he said.

“That development will require Council approval and may not get underway for another 12 months. Now is the time to get a first-hand look at what latest technology exists, and how it is integrated across the various emergency services.’’

The Taipei EOC integrates the fire and police departments, emergency dispatch centre, traffic control centre, MRT operations centre, and water level centre to create a command centre.

“That’s what we need to aspire to. Our current centre is first-class and manned by exceptional professionals. It also feeds into the broader State Disaster coo-ordination centres,’’ said Mayor Tate.

“I’ll bring these learnings back to the Gold Coast and meet with our Disaster Management Unit (DMU) officials to see what ideas and technology we can employ, particularly in the new centre.’’

Mayor Tate met with Taipei Mayor, Dr Wen-je Ko, as part of the exchange.

The Taipei Mayor expressed interest in sending athletes to compete in our annual Gold Coast marathon, as well as the city’s sports performance and training facilities, post the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

“I’m confident we will see Taiwanese sports squads training on the Gold Coast which is great for our cultural exchange and great for our local businesses and facility co-ordinators.’’