Eurobodalla Shire Council advise:
🛑 Eurobodalla bushfires community update - Friday 3 January, 6pm 🛑
🔥Fires
Conditions on Saturday 4 January 2020 are predicted to be as bad or worse as New Year’s Eve. There is a significant amount of uncontained fire between Batemans Bay and the Victorian border. Forecast north-westerly winds on Saturday will drive fire towards the coast. Planning is in place to ensure firefighting resources are located where they are most needed. The RFS fire prediction map is attached. Monitor Fires Near Me NSW, Live Traffic and local radio for the latest updates.
🏡Eurobodalla residents We need you to make a decision now. Unless you are prepared to the highest level to defend your home, residents living outside the main town centres of Narooma, Moruya, Tuross Head and Batemans Bay should leave now for their closest evacuation centre.
This includes residents living near bush on the outer fringes of main towns. Residents living in the main towns can stay in place and prepare to enact their bushfire survival plans.
✅Batemans Bay evacuation centre Hanging Rock Function Centre, Hanging Rock Place ✅Moruya evacuation centre Moruya Basketball stadium, in the showgrounds, Albert Street ✅Narooma evacuation centre Leisure Centre, Bluewater Drive
✅Tuross Head residents are advised to stay in place. If fire reaches the village, firefighting crews will be there to defend. Tuross Head Country Club is open 24/7 for residents who would like to take refuge. Tuross Head residents with a medical condition should go now to Moruya evacuation centre.
These four centres will be monitored by firefighting crews, and set up with NSW Police, health services, road crews, water and sewer crews, generators and food to provide services during and after the fires. Power outages and highway closures are predicted on Saturday.
Residents intending to leave the shire should go immediately.
🚨People with medical conditions
People with medical conditions should move to an official evacuation centre now. Please bring your required medication and copies of prescriptions. Do not present to the hospital unless you require immediate medical attention. The evacuation centres offer food, water, safety, company and St John’s Ambulance personnel.
📌Register your whereabouts
Once you have established where you will be, please register online with Register.Find.Reunite. Registering online so family and friends can find you without contacting response teams allows them focus on those most in need.
🎒What to take to the evacuation centre
Take a bag with medications, prescriptions, important documents, precious items, wallet, phone and charger, clothing for all seasons and toiletries for a few days. If you can, bring your own bedding - blankets, towels, swags, doonas, pillows – and your own food if possible.
👶🏻People with babies and young children, please bring nappies, formula, baby food, toys and activities.
🐶Small pets are welcome. Please bring pet food and bowls. Large animals can be accommodated under owner-care at Moruya Showground. Local Land Services reps are onsite to assist with animal welfare.
❗️People with camping equipment may camp on the grounds of each evacuation centre. Important: tents must be packed up and stored in cars well before the firefront arrives. Embers will burn tents.
💡Power
Please prepare for power to be lost on Saturday as fire activity increases. Generators are in place at the evacuation centres in Batemans Bay, Moruya and Narooma, and at the Tuross Head Country Club. They are also located at critical infrastructure including water reservoirs, petrol stations, hospitals and aged care facilities.
💧Water
Eurobodalla’s town water supply is safe to drink. Generators are in place to continue supply in the event of a power outage.
🚗Travel
⬇️Route south: From Batemans Bay, travel south on the Princes Highway to Bega. Take the right-hand turnoff to Snowy Mountains Highway, Brown Mountain, for travel to Canberra and west.
⬆️Route north: The Princes Highway is open to Sydney from the Eurobodalla. Traffic is slow due to conditions.
Please drive to the conditions, with your lights on, and obey any traffic control. Many local roads are closed. They are closed because they are dangerous. Do not cross barriers – it creates unnecessary problems for emergency services.
⛽️Fuel
Transport for NSW has prioritised fuel deliveries to the far south coast. Generators are in place in Batemans Bay, Moruya and Narooma to continue fuel provision in the likely event of a power outage from Saturday’s fire activity.
👨👩👧👦Visitors
Dangerous fire conditions are forecast for the entire South Coast of NSW this Saturday 4 January 2020. If you are holidaying on the South Coast, particularly the area from South Durras to the Victorian border you need to leave immediately. Do not come to the South Coast this weekend, it is not safe.
Closures for Saturday 4 January 2020:
❌Rex flights in and out of Moruya Airport cancelled.
❌Moruya Markets cancelled.
❌Eurobodalla lifeguards will not be on duty. Please assist emergency services and avoid swimming in the ocean tomorrow. This will be reassessed Sunday.
❌Tips closed.
📢Community updates
Eurobodalla’s Emergency Operations Centre will provide a community update around 7.30am, depending on conditions. The update will be provided to evacuation centres, media and social media. Further updates are unlikely until the fire has passed. Please rely on official information from Fires Near Me, Live Traffic and local radio.
🙌🏼 Thank you
Thank you Eurobodalla residents for your cooperation and goodwill in this very difficult situation. Emergency services stand ready to fight tomorrow’s fires and protect lives. We will get through this.
