After the flood, the blame begins: where were the warnings?

A review of the response to Queensland’s major flood event this year has found that a lack of training and awareness among some council officers led to delayed alerts being issued to residents through the national warning system.

The Inspector General of Emergency Management report, tabled in parliament on Wednesday, makes 19 recommendations to better protect communities in future, including a strengthening of flood warning networks and guidance about flood risk.

Brisbane City Council this week updated the official flood mapping for the city.

Records were set across south-east Queensland during the inundation in late February, which led to the deaths of 13 people, brought transport networks to a halt and delivered more than one metre of rain to some areas within a week.

“Dealing with multiple rainfall and flooding events concurrent to [COVID] placed significant strain and fatigue on affected communities, as well as entities engaged in the response to these events under the Queensland disaster management arrangements,” the report said.

“In this event, the warnings varied in terms of their timeliness, clarity and consistency, with some community members not receiving any warnings.”

Seqwater was “commended” for its operation of Wivenhoe Dam and detail shared about the release of water into the Brisbane River, beyond what was required or planned.

The floods caused widespread damage and disruption in Brisbane.Credit: Nine, Getty

Emergency Services Minister Mark Ryan told parliament all recommendations were being implemented and on track for completion by their due dates.

Ryan noted that the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services had already contacted the operators of the national alert system to improve its capacity in the future, and would continue to encourage councils to undergo training opportunities not always taken up.

“The report also reflects on examples of delays in emergency alerts being issued in some local government areas … due to a number of factors including national system constraints and delays in processing requests from local government agencies due to messaging and targeting inaccuracies,” he said.

While Ryan said many councils already had processes in place, were “well versed” in emergency alert systems, he twice raised the actions of Brisbane City Council.

Ryan said the council last accessed the alert training module in 2018 but had since re-signed to it for later this month. He also referred to report timeline showing a 24-hour gap between weather bureau advice about a major flood and a request to issue an emergency alert being received.

Brisbane City Council’s own review into the floods in May recommended reform of the national emergency alert system operated jointly by state governments.

On Tuesday, lord mayor Adrian Schrinner sought to pre-empt the IGEM report, saying he was “deeply troubled to learn state authorities are only now getting around to reviewing the system”.

The council has also updated flood mapping to better reflect the risk to residents.