Heatwave information

• Severe heatwaves can be dangerous for many people, especially older people, babies, children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, people with medical conditions and people who are unwell.
• Seek a place to keep cool, such as your home, a library, community centre, or shopping centre.
• Close your windows and draw blinds, curtains, or awnings early in the day to keep the heat out of your home.
• If available, use fans or air-conditioners to keep cool.

For information on staying safe during a heatwave, go to the Queensland Department of Health web page.

There are 5 key messages regarding Heatwave for the community, as follows:

• Have a plan
• Stay hydrated
• Stay out of the sun
• Keep cool
• Check on and look after others.

Additional information

• Maximum temperatures in the high thirties to low forties with minimum temperatures in the mid to high twenties over central Queensland.
• Severe heatwave conditions are expected to ease by the end of the week over central Queensland.
• Severe heatwave conditions have eased over southern Queensland.
• For up-to-date information, see the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) website.

Develop and regularly review a disaster plan for your service/site to ensure the safety of staff and clients. This should include:

• Preparation tasks for a cyclone or severe weather event
• Knowing your hazards and risks – i.e. what storm surge zones are you in
• Is the property affected by flooding and, if so, how do you continue to operate services to clients post event as per your Business Continuity Plan?
• Sheltering options during and immediately after an event 
• Plans/procedures should an evacuation be ordered 
• Ensure staff contact list is up to date 
• Testing of your plans to ensure all staff know their roles/processes to be followed should the plan be activated prior to the commencement of the season.
• Consider suitable and safe alternative accommodation arrangements well before an event for clients that may be required to evacuate
• Make prior arrangements to stay at alternative, suitable accommodation in more secure structures and/or beyond storm surge levels
• Know your pet emergency plan
• Ensure clients, staff and the service’s property is secure and safe prior to any disaster event
• Consider your communication strategy – how will you contact staff, clients, and general community? Consider phone, email, website and social media (Facebook, Twitter/X) options
• Ensure you, your staff and clients are self-sufficient for at least 72 hours, including supplies of sufficient food, water and medication with a prepared emergency kit. Consider alternate power generation and ensure you have additional charged power packs for mobile phones
• Monitor developing weather events, and provide staff and clients with correct and current information regarding severe events or cyclones that may affect them or their property.

Heatwave specific resources

• Heatwave warnings (Bureau of Meteorology)
• Extreme Heat and Heatwaves Stakeholder Kit 2023-24 (Queensland Government)
• Hot weather health and safety (Queensland Government)

Other useful resources

• Community Services Industry Alliance: a toolkit supporting and encouraging the role of community–based organisations
• QCOSS Community Door: provides access to a variety of resources to assist Non-Government Organisations to consider when developing Business Continuity Plans and processes to assist vulnerable clients in a disaster.    
• ABC Radio is the recognised Emergency Broadcaster
• Bureau of Meteorology
• Get Ready Queensland
• Australian Red Cross
• Disability Inclusive disaster risk reduction: Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness (Collaborating 4 Inclusion)
• 3 things we can do now to help people with disability prepare for disaster (theconversation.com) 
• 'Nobody checked on us': what people with disability told us about their experiences of disasters and emergencies (theconversation.com) 
• Homelessness & Disaster: Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness (Collaborating 4 Inclusion)
• Lifeline
• Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience
• Preparing for Disasters (Queensland Government)
• Public health advice for disaster management (Queensland Government)
• Mental health and wellbeing (Queensland Government)
• Disaster recovery support (Queensland Government)
• Translated fact sheets about financial assistance grants (Queensland Government)
• Housing help after a disaster (Queensland Government)
• Rebuilding and cleaning up (Queensland Government)
• Local government disaster dashboards (Queensland Government)
• Bushfire Resilience Rating app (National Emergency Management Agency)
• Connects Rural Australia to Mental Health Services (Rural Health Connect)
• Grants Finder (Queensland Government)
• Queensland Gives (Queensland Community Foundation)
• RACQ Foundation

Also check local Council websites and social media accounts (e.g. Facebook) to ensure staff and clients have access to up to date source of information during and post a disaster.