‘Put lives at risk’: Bureau of Meteorology’s new website criticised by Queensland government
Queensland’s Treasurer says the Bureau of Meteorology’s $4.1m website upgrade has left communities unprepared for severe storms that cut power to 100,000 homes.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s $4.1m upgrade to its website a week before the start of storm season has been heavily criticised by the Queensland government, with the Treasurer saying the changes put the “lives and safety of Queenslanders at risk” in recent severe storms.
Power was cut to almost 100,000 homes when severe storms battered southeast Queensland on Sunday, bringing torrential rain, wind gusts of up 100km/h and golf-ball-sized hail. The storms also downed trees, 370 power lines and shuttered 11 schools on Monday.
More than 11,000 insurance claims have been made to date, according to the Insurance Council of Australia.
Residents in the state’s southeast have complained about the website’s upgrade, including a new colour scale that meant users assumed the weekend weather event would be weaker than it was.
Others say they were forced to zoom in from a default overview of Australia, rather than allowing a quick zoom into a radius of 128km or 64km to cover all of the state’s southeast region.
Speaking in parliament on Tuesday, David Crisafulli said communities were left unprepared by the cumbersome new BOM website launched last week, saying the changes “don’t make sense”.
“The website is flawed,” the Queensland Premier said. “Easy access to individual radars has been removed, the colour scheme we have become accustomed to has changed, and platitudes from Canberra won’t cut it.
“Queenslanders always show their resilience in these events but preparation is the key. That preparation depends on the information available to us, and the changes to the federally run BOM website are not good enough.”
It is understood the Premier met the bureau on Monday to discuss the website changes.
Queensland Treasurer David Janetzki told parliament on Tuesday that he had written to federal Environment and Water Minister Murray Watt expressing his “significant concern about the changes made to the BOM website and the impact they have had on Queenslanders” during recent severe storms.
“This website contained critical flaws,” he told parliament. “Caboolture, a growing area of the southeast corner, has disappeared as a locator on the BOM map while the … associated colour coding of the storms that Queenslanders rely on through thick and thin has significantly changed for the worse.”
Mr Janetzki urged the federal government “to reconsider” the changes made to the website and “consider options to improve accessibility of information at this critical time as Queensland enters summer”.
Writing to Senator Watt, Mr Janetzki said Sunday’s extreme storms had left Queenslanders shocked, “many of whom felt surprised by the sudden rainfall and lighting amidst a lack of accessible information on the new BOM website”.
“The decision to make the site live on 22 October – just as Queensland and Australia enter storm season – can, at its best, be described as shortsighted, while at its worst, it has put the lives and safety of Queenslanders at risk,” he wrote in a letter seen by The Australian.
Weatherwatch managing director Anthony Cornelius said the bureau’s new website had “underestimated the intensity of the storm”.
“It beggars belief that the BOM would roll out such a significant change to an essential infrastructure service just as the main storm season is about to start,” he said.
“The key here is that the change was not communicated. So people weren’t aware that they were looking at something different.”
Marcelo Ramos was one of those Queenslanders affected by Sunday’s severe storms. He agreed that changes to the bureau’s website had not been properly communicated.
“I work in the outdoor industry, so I rely on the radar on a daily basis but it wasn’t until after the storm that I discovered the parameters on the BOM’s website had been changed,” he said.
In a statement, Senator Watt said he had met with the bureau’s acting CEO Peter Stone and discussed “the public’s concerns with its updated website”.
“It’s clear that the new BOM website is not meeting many users’ expectations, with a significant range of feedback provided to the bureau in recent days,” he said.
“I made clear my expectations that the BOM needed to consider this feedback and, where appropriate, adjust the website’s settings as soon as possible. This includes urgent consideration of improvements to the website’s functionality and usability.
“In addition, I have asked the BOM to organise a briefing with state and territory emergency services ministers this week, to ensure they are fully briefed on the new website and the steps BOM is taking to improve it.”
A BOM spokesperson said the new website had been designed with “public safety at its core”, adding that changes to the radar display and colour scale were made to improve reliability, “readability and accessibility across devices”.
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