1 August - Early Warning Service for floods

The MBRC Early Warning Service for Flood and Severe Weather.

Providing better warnings for residents at risk from floods.

As Mayor in 2012, I would introduce a service for MBRC residents to receive free flooding and severe weather alerts by SMS.

This initiative would help meet Recommendations 4.2 and 4.3 of the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry Interim Report issued today.

Residents who register for the service would receive free alerts by either SMS, email, land line, fax, the web, Facebook or Twitter.

MBRC would partner with the Early Warning Network (EWN) to provide the service.  EWN is a dedicated operation which continuously monitors threats and issues warnings and updates.

Brisbane City Council and the Townsville City Council have both partnered with EWN to provide their households with free severe weather alerts.

An MBRC Early Warning Service for Floods and Severe Weather would work along similar lines to the system in Brisbane.  Costs would be met by MBRC as part of a better service to local residents.

Residents will register with the service either online through the Council website, or fill in a form.

EWN would monitor Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) weather warnings and information from Council’s own flood gauge system.

Alerts would then be sent about potentially dangerous weather events such as hail and severe thunderstorms, destructive winds and cyclones, floods and tsunamis.

Alerts are sent by email, SMS (optional), or recorded message to your landline (optional).  If you choose both the SMS and landline options, only extreme alerts will be sent to your landline.

These alerts are targeted to areas that are specifically going to be affected by an event.  They are not a wide spread general type of alert.

The alerts are location-based, so you receive warnings if your residential address may be in danger.

The alerts would provide MBRC residents with greater levels of up-to-date information and the added security of early warnings so as residents can determine their courses of action in the case of a flood.

You can use the free Early Warning Service if you are a MBRC resident, you register your residential address, and no-one else in your household has registered for alerts.