It can be a challenge to clearly and concisely communicate a message to get communities interested in action.

While there can be enthusiasm to start with, after a while people often forget what to do, particularly when they’ve not had to practice and have fortunately avoided any serious emergencies.

The community of Middle Beach in South Australia has come up with an innovative approach to remind people about what to do. As a low lying coastal community they already have to deal with periodic flooding during high tides. Sea-level rise will make this problem more severe. The residents still want to live there, but the council and community need to make sure everyone is safe during larger flood events. So they came up with two ideas to keep the emergency procedures top of mind.

The first is to put it on the fridge, the second is to put it in the dunny.

Idea 1: On the fridge
A fridge magnet provides a short summary of what to do at each stage of a flood emergency. It’s based on the acronym SAFR (get it, ‘safer’). You can see the elements of each stage in the image below.

Idea 2: In the dunny
The community also developed a complementary poster that can be put on the back of the toilet door. That way during periods of quiet contemplation, householders, visitors and renters can keep up-to-date about what to do in the event of a flood.

You can download a copy of the poster here.

How would the magnet and poster idea work in your community?
What improvements would you make to the fridge magnet or poster?