Flood Warning and Damages in Alice Springs: Part 1 Executive Summary. Part 2 Tangible Damages Part 3 Intangible Damages & Emergency Procedures
Handmer, John; Smith, D. I.; Greenaway, Mark
E-Publications; E-Books; PublicationNT; Report ; 53/1989
1989-04-01
Made available via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT).
Date:1989-04
English
Power and Water Authority
Alice Springs
Report ; 53/1989
application/pdf.
Check within Publication or with content Publisher.
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/228902
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/673596
Technical Report WRA89053 Viewed at 03:02:00 on 18/02/2010 Page 79 of 139. Plan the night before m.:"~'t have er.abled Aboriginal organisations co evacuate people to the official cencres safely. Major b~sinesses, motels, etc indicated :hat they would have used an early warning of potential flooding to reschedu'''' s--~: I~ ~a'll'ng -he Com~itee togeho~ -he ..I..~ '-c_.!.. .. \... __ l-.. ',Ht_l. I-., ..... J... '-~. police have to depend on advice from PAWA as to t:-,e :lood potentia:, The third poi~t concerns the issue of warnings ~o the public. Major busi~ess e~terprises, Aboriginal organisa~ions, and gover~2ent authorities would apprec~ate early notificat~on o~ pote~tial flooding. The p~blic should also receive war~ings a~d general information abo~t the flood. The ~act ~~at war~~ngs were not issued co the p~bllc until the f:ood was ~ell underway seems to counter a ~aJor reason tor having a ~arning system. In floods and si~ilar ci=cumstances people see~ information. Providing informat~on acts t~ reduce anxiety and can substantially reduce tangib:e a~:: inta~cible losses. A final ?oint concerns the allocation of roles and responsibilities. A:though these are specified in the Counter Disaster ?lac, sev'eral members of the Counter Disaster Commitcee found =hat during the flood there ~as considerable role con~licc. These problems are helped by meetings and d:sas~e~ exe~cises involving all the pe~so~nel concerned to cc~tinue ~o cla~ify roles. Warning dissemination Doorknocking by police, as set out in the Counter Disas:er Plan, is a mos~ effective way of persuading peop~e =0 take action, and i: at all possible should be used for those ~ost at risk, Cio'.-lever, it is cime consuming and occupies scaff who may be needed for other flood related work, The electronic ~edia should be tied into the warning system i~ a formal way to ensure the rapid dissemination of warnings and other emergency rela~ed material. Provided the messages are not contradictory multiple warning message sources are more effective thar. a single source. It aooears that in the recent flood the media simply did not receive official flood warnings_ Arrangemencs should be made to ensure that broadcast media receive the warnings as soon as they are issued, This is especially important in Alice Springs because of the very limited warning time, (The media would prefer to receive the warnings via =ax), Consideration should be given to includinq media reoresentatives on the Counter Disascer Co~mittee, It is also imnortant that the police and NTES help media staff get to their stations, This did not occur during the last flood, Some advance warning would help avoid the situation where essential service workers, including broadcast media staff and some members of the I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I: