Pollyana

Bit of a research gathering exercise this one, partly as preparation for the inevitable "next time" - while none of us like to think about that, if we can get ideas in here while they are fresh in your minds I would really appreciate it.
Constructive comments only please (negative as well as positive), and if I can feed the info back to the appropriate authorities I will (that's mainly QPS media for facebook and twitter and Emergency Alert as issued in Queensland).

Lots of you will have got Emergency Alert messages - they are the mass broadcast automated voice messages on landlines, and texts on mobiles. These are NOT the ones that you sign up for from the local councils. They are a totally different system. Emergency Alert is not an opt in/opt out service, whilst the local council ones are. Any feedback on the system is appreciated. It was developed after the bushfires in Victoria and its never been used in as big a way before. Most of us in Queensland hadn't actually issued them live before the floods started, and I know Victoria has been using it in many areas as well lately. The system has specific methods of working and some cannot be changed but if I can explain any of its quirks then I will

Facebook pages have sprung up all over the place, some better than others - I'm mainly interested in the comments on government/official pages such as BoM, QPS or even Weatherzone, but comments on any use of it are handy. Same with Twitter, though I think use of that is less widespread.

Thanks............

Bix

I think the QLD Government emergency alert text messages are a great idea.
I received 3 consecutive ones between 2.13am and 2.21am through Optus from so didn't see them until next morning. I am on Virgin so I guess they use the Optus network.
If an emergency occurred at an unearthly hour there's not a lot one can do but what I thought was very bad this time is that the same messages were put out by Telstra at least 12 hours earlier.

Cairns council website was a disaster. Frequently hanging and timing out. Obviously a lot of people were trying to access the flood maps but the system couldn't cope. The method they used was partly to blame I feel. Bloomin great .pdf files that took ages to download.

Turban Explorer

I think BOM is a great site. It holds loads of historical information about weather too so you can academically get quite fascinated with the whole thing. One thing I don't think is perhaps addressed well enough is the advice for boat owners - when is someone advised to evacuate a boat? The marinas are evacuated very early on and then with no phone network nor easy internet you are reliant on the vhf. I felt as though the situation had escalated massively with half the town evacuated etc... whilst I was completely in the dark. There were no guidelines for us at all. I have heard that Cairns Ports are considering enforced evacuation from yachts in the mangroves for anything over a category 3 - I don't think they will be successful as there are a lot of cyclone savvy, very experienced old mariners around, but personally, I would appreciate a clearer safety guide and would be pleased to check into a 5 star hotel for the duration!! (bit like the rather unpleasant owners of Dunk Island resort who left their staff in the full blow whilst sheltering at the 'Shang' in Cairns.)

Pollyana

The EA stuff - the messages go out across the entire network (both Optus and telstra) within a short time - we are told they should all go within about 3 hours (depending on the time that we set on the machine when sending). I'd have to check at work to see what times the Cairns ones were sent but I think they were around 1830-1900. The software and hardware is hosted by Telstra in Victoria, though the messages are sent by the individual State governments. Interesting to know the times of arrival on different networks as we are told the network shouldn't matter; useful info - cheers

Bix

Forgot to mention I received each text 4 times Polly.
So 12 in total.

The A Team

I received my messages from the Queensland Government via optus at 2.33am on 02/02/2011.

This is what they said:

(1st message)

This is a message from the Queensland Government. It is strongly advised that if you are located in a storm surge area between Cooktown to Home Hill

(2nd message)

and have the ability to relocate to a safer location that you undertake preparations immediately.

(3rd message)

It is strongly advised that all preparations, including evacuations are completed by 8am Wednesday 2 February. Do not reply to this SMS.

Each one was received 3 times.

We had our phones on silent as we normally do when we go to bed and didn't wake up until 7am so it was lucky for us that we didn't live in the storm surge area. I was already well informed and had also previously received the text messages from the council regarding the storm surge (and I also work for the council and had been giving out the information myself) so it wasn't a big deal for me receiving it so late, but for other people it might have been.

Pollyana

Thanks guys. We have had people phone up and say they got the messages overnight, but you have to gauge whether they are just whinging or genuine, specially when they won't leave a name
The recorded phone message will redial (I think its three times) UNLESS you speak answering the phone. If it gets an answerphone or someone just picks the phone up and drops it again, the system re-dials.
As for the texts, you should only receive it once on each mobile with a registered address in the area targeted. Each text message can only be 160 characters long (inc spaces). I wasn't involved in those being sent, but I guess they decided to send three so as to get all the info in. However the fact that you both received them multiple times is interesting and I'll feed it back.

The A Team

also found QPS and Townsville Disaster Information on facebook invaluable and I am glued to the weatherzone forums...

The A Team

yep and it was a bit confusing as the first message was received three times, then the second message three times and then the last message three times so when you have just woken up and are trying to piece it all together....