Fire preparation is more than clearing gutters and evacuation plans. It’s building solidarity in ordinary times so it’s there in extraordinary ones
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As extreme heat grips large parts of Australia this week, the time for preparation is now, not when flames are visible or evacuation orders sound. The communities that survive disasters aren’t the ones with the best emergency services. They’re the ones that have built resilience before crisis strikes.
I know this from experience. My village of Cobargo on the New South Wales south coast was devastated during the black summer fires six years ago. Recently, at the SXSW conference in Sydney, I swapped experiences with Tim Cadogan, a first responder and the CEO of GoFundMe, who lost most of his home town of Altadena, California in the Los Angeles wildfires in January last year. Though thousands of miles apart, we are learning that strong recovery needs a level of community connectedness established long before crisis strikes.