Cairns Regional Council apologises after sending emergency alerts
Cairns Regional Council has apologised to the public after several emergency alerts warning of major flooding were sent in error.
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Cairns Regional Council has apologised to the public after several emergency alerts warning of major flooding were sent in error.
The message, which was sent out at 8.53am on Thursday morning by Cairns Disaster Group warned Copperlode Dam may pose a threat to people and property in Redlynch, Brinsmead, Lower Freshwater and Kamerunga.
Residents were urged to move to higher ground.
A follow-up text message said the disaster group advised the “earthquake risk” at Copperlode Dam was over.
Residents have also reported receiving emergency alert emails advising of “rapidly rising water levels downstream fo Copperlode Dam” as late as 12.42pm.
Those emails are part of the same emergency alert system that sent the earlier text messages and were the result of the same error.
In a statement, council confirmed the messages were send in error and there was no emergency.
“Council is aware that several emergency alerts were sent this morning to residents,” the statement read.
It was believed to be a human error and residents were assured the system was functioning as designed.
The council apologised for any inconvenience or distress the alerts caused and is investigating exactly how they came to be sent.
It comes after council was questioned on its disaster management plan which was criticised for sending flood warnings after people were evacuated homes in December last year.
Earlier this year, Division 5 councillor Rob Pyne admitted council had got ‘a few things wrong’ prior to Tropical Cyclone Jasper and the unprecedented December flooding.
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