[LINK] Queensland Floods Report Lacks Communications Strategy

[Tom Worthington]

The Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry Interim Report was released 
1 August 2011: http://floodcommission.qld.gov.au/publications/interim-report

Several or the recommendations refer to the use of telecommunications 
for flood warnings, telephones, SMS, mobile phones, the Internet and the 
web. However, what is lacking from the Queensland response to the flood, 
and the report's recommendations, is an overall strategy for the use of 
telecommunications for disaster preparedness and response. The 
recommendations refer to different forms of telecommunications in 
different places, rather than an overall strategy of preparing clear 
messages and then issuing them via all available and appropriate 
communications channels.

Recommendations relating to telecommunications:

     2.24 Seqwater should give consideration to posting information 
about current and future releases on its website during flood events as 
one method of ensuring accurate and timely information is available to 
the public.

     3.6 Every local government should publish its disaster management 
plan (and relevant sub-plans) on its website before the next wet season.

     4.2 Councils should prepare SMS alert templates covering a range of 
different flood scenarios before the wet season.

     4.3 SMS alerts should direct recipients to websites or contact 
numbers providing more detailed information about flood locations and 
predictions, the location of evacuation centres and evacuation routes.

     4.4 Councils and Emergency Management Queensland should work 
together to ensure the approval process does not cause delays in 
delivering SMS alerts.

     4.18 Dam operators should assess the effectiveness of using SMS 
and/or email as a bulk instantaneous communication to all people on the 
notification list while individually contacting those whom it is 
essential to inform immediately.

     2.19 Seqwater should ensure that all telephone calls within the 
flood operations centre are digitally recorded to create an accurate 
record of decision-making during major flood events.

     4.23 Operators of dams should publicise, in a newspaper circulating 
in the local area and by posting a notice on its website every year 
before the wet season, the opportunity for local residents immediately 
downstream of a dam to be included on the existing notification list, and:

     * consider whether an applicant for notification is so close to the 
dam that the warning time before water from the dam affects them is less 
than that available through the emergency management system
     * consider whether they can be effectively notified by SMS or email 
if it is necessary to contact the applicant personally, agree with him 
or her a mode for that communication.

     4.28 In rural and remote areas where telecommunications are not 
effective, measures that do not rely on internet and mobile telephone 
services should be implemented to inform the travelling public of road 
conditions ahead, for example:

     * signs with detailed information
     * providing tourist information centres and tourist radio stations 
with information on road conditions.

     4.31 Councils should advise the Bureau of Meteorology of any 
information they possess about flash flooding (or the immediate prospect 
of it) likely to endanger life or property in their region, and of any 
warnings they issue about such flash flooding. The Bureau of Meteorology 
should consider in each case whether any such warning should be 
re-published (whether as a warning emanating from the Bureau itself or 
as attributed to the relevant council) on the Bureau’s website, or 
whether it should provide a link to any council warning or other 
information regarding flash flooding provided by councils or disaster 
management agencies.

     4.32 Where the Bureau of Meteorology has information which leads it 
to anticipate flash flooding likely to endanger life or property in a 
specific area, it should publish a warning to that effect on its website.

     5.45 That advice should be given using as many mechanisms as 
appropriate, including text message, radio and door knocking.


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards 
Legislation

Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science,
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/
Visiting Scientist, CSIRO ICT Centre: http://bit.ly/csiro_ict_canberra