Flood warnings

THE Southern Downs should be much better prepared for future flood events thanks to new warning systems being installed by council.
New flood gauges, an sms warning system, flashing road signs and a siren will all become part of council’s armoury against future floods.
Southern Downs Regional Council’s Director of Engineering Services and Disaster Co-ordinator, Peter See, addressed a meeting last week of locals whose businesses or houses were flooded.
Federal MP Bruce Scott attended the meeting, one of a series run by council’s Economic Development Unit to promote flood preparedness and resilience throughout the region.
Mr See said new flood warnings are being installed on the Condamine River at The Head, in Leyburn, Emu Creek upstream of EmuVale and between Warwick and Murrays Bridge.
He said council is utilising gauges which will automatically measure the rainfall and the river heights and send that information to the council and the Bureau of Meteorology.
In the 2013 floods the council was unable to access the meter at The Head because of dangerous conditions.
“For the first time we’ll have a really accurate way of looking at what’s actually up at the top of the river,” Mr See said.
“They’re all designed to feed into both council and to the Bureau of Meteorology site so that we can get more warning.”
In Killarney a new gauge will have a computer program which, when the conditions demand it, will sound a siren in the town to warn residents and businesses there’s a flood coming.
The siren will likely be installed at the town’s fire station, but will generate a different warning signal for flood events, Mr See said.
Automatic signs on roads across the Condamine will begin flashing to warn motorists and residents in Killarney that the road will soon flood.
Mr See said council is also working on an SMS alert system to warn people across the whole flood zone.
“If something’s going to happen, within an hour from the time we submit it to the state disaster co-ordinating centre then an sms will come out to everybody that’s in that zone,” Mr See said.
The alerts will also go to home phones, but they are considered less reliable than messages to mobiles.
Mr See said all householders and home owners in flood zones in Warwick have received the new booklet containing flood mapping.
“There’s been some very preliminary work about a levee bank down in Percy St, Hope St area, that general area,” Mr See told the meeting.
“In theory it can save quite a few houses,’ he said .
However levees can give protection only for floods of limited height.
“If the water does go over, then there a high likelihood those banks will collapse and then we have a tsunami, so I’ve tempered my view about levee banks a little bit because of that,” Mr See said.