A review into the Brisbane City Council response to Tropical Cyclone Alfred has urged council advocate for the continuation of soon-to-be-decommissioned real-time data system.
Conducted by former Governor and Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul de Jersey, the review looked at the effectiveness of the 2022 Brisbane Flood Review recommendations and how Council responded to the tropical cyclone weather event in March this year.
Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said review found Council delivered an “effective, strong response and recovery effort” to Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
Lord Mayor Schrinner said the severe weather system brought damaging winds, torrential rain, flash flooding, significant disruptions to services and damage to infrastructure.
He said Brisbane had not experienced a tropical cyclone since 1974 (and) March 10 the system brought 275.2mm of rainfall in a 24-hour period, which exceeded the highest daily rainfall total experienced in January 1974.
“Strong winds of up to 63km/h were recorded by the Bureau of Meteorology in the Brisbane area and 75km/h at Brisbane Airport which caused trees and powerlines to fall.
“There were 56,935 Brisbane customers left without power.”
Lord Mayor Schrinner said Mr de Jersey found Council “pursued every opportunity to ensure the community was apprised of the event as it unfolded and provided practical advice based on the best weather-based information and predictions available”.
“It was also determined the 2022 recommendations had been ‘conscientiously, advisedly and effectively attended to’.”
He said recommendations in the review included strongly advocating to both the State and Federal governments for:
- The continuation of vital real-time data through the Federal Government’s Enviromon system, which the Bureau of Meteorology is planning to decommission.
- Improving the gap between response and recovery for disaster recovery funding.
- A Commonwealth/State funded Voluntary Home Purchase Scheme.
“It was also recommended for Council to continue its promotion of Brisbane’s Severe Weather Alert, refine its use of evacuation centres and sandbag self-service centres and build on the established success of the Emergency Dashboard.”
Fast Facts:
- More than 1.6 million visits to Council’s Emergency Dashboard.
- 527,000 sandbags taken.
- More than 600 people deployed to attend to immediate cleanup.
- 265 social media posts and updates.
- 232,916 people now signed up to the free Brisbane Severe Weather Alert.
