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Emergency weather alerts system questioned in wake of Cyclone Debbie

Ruth McCosker
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The arrival of an SMS warning to evacuate as extreme weather lashed Australia's east coast came a little too late for John Egan, whose home was underwater by the time the message arrived.

The effectiveness of more than 4.6 million emergency alerts delivered as Cyclone Debbie and the subsequent rainfall hit Queensland and northern New South Wales have been questioned with claims the alert system is not effective on its own and shouldn't be used as a trigger to take action.

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Cyclone Debbie's power 'extraordinary'

Survivors of Cyclone Debbie count the cost and relive the devastation but claim that it "didn't beat us".

From March 26 to April 5, Queensland and New South Wales State Emergency Services sent 4,647,339 successful alerts via SMS and voice calls.

Crisis and disaster management expert Lex Drennan said warnings issued solely by the emergency alert systems were better than nothing, but not sufficient.

"The emergency alert systems are very useful when they're giving clear direction on what to do, such as evacuate now or shelter in place – so when it's straightforward, like this, do that," Ms Drennan said.

"When they become problematic is when they're providing information to people who then need to make their own assessment on what to do."

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Risk and crisis communication researcher Amisha Mehta said ideally people should not use an emergency alert or a knock on the door as a trigger for taking action.

"Doing so leaves you with limited choices about what how to best protect yourself, your family, business and property," Ms Mehta said.

'Unfortunately it was a little bit too late' – John Egan, Beenleigh

For Mr Egan there was no warning of knock on his door by SES before water started flowing through the laundry and garage of his Beenleigh home at 6.30am on Friday, March 31.

By 7am his home was underwater.

Hours later, just before 9am, his phone received a text message alert from Queensland SES.

Mr Egan said the alert was just a little too late.

"I think we were one of the lowest houses in the area and we were under a couple of hours before we got the alert to evacuate," he said.

"We would have had to get it a lot earlier for it to have given us more time. By 5.30am it was obvious we had to move and that was the first time we really noticed it."

Mr Egan said if he had received an SMS he would take it seriously, but also relied on finding other sources to assess the situation, like news sources.

Ms Drennan said people tended to validate the information they receive from the SES via text messages against their own trusted sources.

Do residents trust the information from SES?

SES volunteers, with the help of Queensland Police, door-knocked some low-lying areas to tell residents of the impending dangers and to evacuate.

Ms Drennan said if resources were infinite she would choose door-knocking as the ideal method for conveying warnings to residents.

 "If I've got an SES volunteer who has seen plenty of floods, who knows their business who has taken the time to come and tell me you are at risk – I am much more inclined to believe that personal investment of effort than a text message."

Ms Drennan said a big problem surrounding the emergency alert system was the use of terminology in the limited character message.

"If you're in the emergency management sector you know what a moderate flood warning means, you know what a major flood warning means," she said.

"The general public really doesn't and most of the time there is no reason why they really should.

"People don't trust those informational alerts as they don't really know what it means."

'I'll admit that I was pretty complacent about it' – Steve Krieg, Lismore

For Lismore business owner Steve Krieg the arrival of two text message warnings within two hours led him to frantically pack up shop and head to higher ground.

But, as he watched and waited for the water to flood Lismore's CBD he questioned the alert system – was the warning premature, are people too complacent?

"The miscommunication was really hard in this flood," Mr Krieg said.

"It was certainly clear enough of what to do, it was just about six hours too early."

Mr Krieg said he received his first text message warning to expect a moderate flood about 4.30pm on March 30 and at 6.30pm a warning to evacuate the CBD as a major flood was now predicted.

He said he believed residents relied too much on technology and not enough on local knowledge when it came to disasters.

"There are some really great older farmers in this area that knew it was going to flood at six o'clock on Thursday morning and they started moving all of their livestock and moving all of their equipment," he said.

"They know because they've lived through floods, heaps of floods. Those people don't get consulted anymore.

"A lot of the warnings that we've received are based on what might happen rather than what is going to happen.

"When you get warnings on things that may happen, you do get complacent.

"I'll admit that I was pretty complacent about it as well. Thursday afternoon at four o'clock our staff went home and we all said, see you tomorrow."

Mr Krieg received about two metres of water through his Lismore CBD business, La Baracca Espresso Bar and Trattoria.

The system

A Queensland Fire and Emergency Services spokeswoman said the emergency alert system was a comprehensive way to contact a large group in short period of time, but was just one method used when informing the community.

"Spreading important safety messages through the media and social media as well as conducting face-to-face communications activities like door-knocking and community meetings ensure that vital safety messages can get to those who need them by various means," the spokeswoman said.

A New South Wales SES spokeswoman said the SES were satisfied with the functioning of the emergency alert system as one part of a suite of tools that the SES used during this flooding event in the warning and evacuation of residents.

"It supported the use of door-knocking and community engagement activities," she said.

Ms Mehta said more research needed to be done into the length and content within the text message alerts. 

Approximate number of successful text messages delivered by council area:

  • Banana: 14,500
  • Burdekin: 9900
  • Central Highlands: 1500
  • Gold Coast: 786,600
  • Logan: 337,000
  • Mackay: 213,500
  • Palm Island: 4900
  • Rockhampton: 102,200
  • Scenic Rim: 81,200
  • Townsville: 7850
  • Whitsunday: 89,100
  • Agnes Waters south to NSW Border: 2,323,200

There were approximately 449,403 text messages and 92,486 voice call warnings successfully sent in New South Wales. 

There were approximately 133,900 voice call warning successfully delivered across Queensland

Despite the millions of warning messages sent they did not prove effective and reliable for all residents.

Mr Krieg's business is back trading, but about five weeks after the flood he was still yet to fully recover.

He said it was a sad recovery as he lost all of his produce and equipment.

Mr Egan's house was unliveable after the flood inundated it without warning and he has since had to relocate.

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