LIVINGSTONE Shire residents were this week given a first-look at the inner workings of the Yeppoon Public Cyclone Shelter as part of the council's Disaster Management Strategy.

On Tuesday more than 100 response and support agency personnel and members of the public attended the shelter for an evacuation exercise and information session, covering a range of topics including access to the Public Cyclone Shelter, hazards and risks, stocking home emergency kits and developing household evacuation plans.

Mayor Bill Ludwig, who is also Chair of the Local Disaster Management Group, said the exercise was an excellent opportunity to further build on and put into practice the lessons learned from Tropical Cyclone Marcia.

"Natural disasters are unfortunately part of life, as we know only too well here in our region,” he said.

"Today's exercise was a fantastic example of council, State Government agencies and members of the public working together to be as prepared as possible and taking responsibility for keeping our community safe, should we ever be faced with another catastrophic event like TC Marcia.”

Attendees were given an in-depth explanation of the elements of the Cyclone Shelter including the specialised ventilation and cooling mechanisms as well as the roles of the various emergency services during an event including Police, Ambulance, Fire, SES, Red Cross and Council.

"The primary purpose of the shelter is for people who live in storm tide areas, have dwellings built before the strict cyclone building standards which came into effect in 1982, and those people who do not have alternate sheltering arrangements with friends and family,” Cr Ludwig said.

"Perhaps most importantly though it was a chance for residents to ask any questions they had about preparing their own households for an emergency and a reminder that the Cyclone Shelter should be their option of last resort.”