MORE than a third of people affected by the Grampians bushfires in January 2014 feel they are still struggling to recover.
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Horsham Rural City and Northern Grampians Shire have developed a fire recovery review, which looks at how communities were affected and what councils could do to better manage a natural disaster in the future.
The review will be tabled at Horsham’s council meeting on Monday night.
Horsham community services director Angela Murphy said the purpose of the review was to identify what management strategies did and did not work during the bushfires.
“We looked at what we can take forward and how we can improve our recovery management,” she said.
“It’s a continuous improvement process and it will be used as a whole of government report for a future emergency.”
The review showed out of the 43 people that were affected by the fire, 23 per cent lost homes, 21 per cent lost infrastructure and 21 per cent lost businesses.
Other people said while they were not physically affected, the fire caused anxiety.
Thirty-four per cent of people said they had not yet recovered and 22 per cent said they were in a stronger position than before.
Those who stated they were still recovering were either still rebuilding, repairing or replanting, or still felt stressed from the disaster.
The review showed areas that needed improvement included communication, support for community and business and planning.
The review made a number of recommendations including having a fire recovery newsletter, earlier debriefs with affected communities and developing a plan for funding at the different rates people recover.
Councils will also develop a community emergency management plan that addresses issues such as access to properties after an emergency, mobile phone and internet coverage and managing loss of services such as power and water.
Ms Murphy said said it was vital both councils worked together.
She said the review would go to state agencies such as Emergency Management Victoria, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.
The review said overall both councils’ recovery efforts were well received.
