Flagstone students 'Get Ready' for disasters
Flagstone school students are being recognised as the future leaders of the community in preparing for storms and natural disasters.
The Flagstone State Community College students proved their safety knowledge during a seriously impacting art display on 11 October, where they decorated children-sized corflutes with all kinds of storm safety messages to share for Get Ready Queensland Week (8 – 13 October).
Hundreds of the corflutes were displayed along the school’s fence line for visiting VIPS from government and emergency services who walked around the schoolgrounds to view the Walking Fence Exhibition.
The art showed that each child had valuable input for school and community disaster resilience.
Essential questions such as ‘Bring canned food’, ‘Pets safe?’ and ‘Charged mobile?’ and warnings like ‘In floods, don’t swim’, featured on the corflutes to send messages to households and the community about preparing for the dangers of the approaching storm season.
Principal Julie Strong says the school was pleased to be chosen as the first location in Queensland to take part in the highly successful Victorian Schools in Bushfire project, which helped give students a genuine voice in disaster management.
‘It’s about young people having a voice and the capacity to influence others with the right messages, including members of their households, to make informed and good decisions,’ Julie says of the Exhibition, viewed by guests including Queensland Reconstruction Authority CEO Major General Jake Ellwood (Retd) and Queensland Police Service Acting Chief Superintendent Melissa Addams.
‘This also helps young people learn what to do when they get older and see all the different branches involved in disaster management – from police to the SES to the Council – and have access to the right information in an emergency,’ she says.
Major General Jake Ellwood says the project is a great example of encouraging resilience and readiness for extreme weather events like storms, floods, cyclones and bushfires.
‘Wherever you are, whatever you’re up against, being able to call on resilience in the face of a challenge is incredibly powerful,’ he says.
‘Regardless of where you live or how long you’ve lived there, it’s important every Queenslander understands their risk, makes a household emergency plan, and packs an emergency kit.
‘Get Ready Queensland’s new campaign sums it up perfectly – weather doesn’t plan, but you can – and it’s fantastic to see Logan City Council and Flagstone State Community College helping raise that awareness in the community.’
Year 7 students Zayne Kamp and Lyla Parsons both had their corflutes featured on the school fence.
Above: Flagstone State Community College Year 7 student Lyla Parsons with her disaster resilience corflute for Get Ready Queensland Week.
Lyla, who says her household was previously impacted by strong storm winds when her trampoline was damaged, made sure to include Food Box and First Aid Kit drawings on her corflute. While Zayne, whose father has medical experience, themed his corflute character as a disaster medic with the question ‘Do you have a medkit ready when needed?’.
‘The main message I have learned from this project is to always be prepared for anything to come,’ Zayne says.
‘When a storm might be coming, from now on I will think about it differently and plan ahead.’
Logan City Council’s advice for residents is to prepare a personalised emergency plan for your home and family. For advice on how to do this, visit Get Ready Queensland.
Logan’s Disaster Dashboard also offers essential information that is useful before, during and after disaster events, as well as details about how to register for Logan Early Warning Alerts and the Logan Flood Portal. Go to Dashboard (logan.qld.gov.au)
Photo at top: Year 7 students from left, Liam Wall, Cooper Hodges, Zayne Kamp and Reyan Karunarathne, with Zayne’s corflute for Get Ready Queensland Week at Flagstone State Community College.
