Queensland floods

[bajdas]

From: http://www.ses.sa.gov.au/site/home.jsp

News Release
www.premier.sa.gov.au
twitter.com/PremierMikeRann

Premier Mike Rann
Minister for Economic Development
Minister for Social Inclusion
Minister for the Arts
Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change
Tuesday, 11 January 2011

FURTHER SA HELP FOR QUEENSLAND FLOOD VICTIMS

Premier Mike Rann has announced that South Australia is today sending SES crews to assist with the emergency relief, and increasing its contribution to the Queensland Premier's Flood Appeal to $1 million dollars.

Mr Rann said the thoughts of all South Australians go out to the victims of the floods, which have seen the tragic loss of so many lives, and entire towns devastated.

"The scale of the floods in Queensland is unimaginable, and all Australians have all been shocked by the scale of the destruction," Mr Rann said.

"Last week, I announced South Australia would kickstart our assistance with $300,000 to the Premier of Queensland's Flood Appeal.

"As the floods continue to worsen and more towns and lives are so badly affected, I have this  morning contacted Anna Bligh to reiterate our offer to assist in any way we can.

"Today, I have increased our contribution to $1 million dollars, and the SES will be sending a team of 21 to assist the emergency teams working in Queensland.

"Twenty SES volunteers and one staff member will head to Queensland, likely late this afternoon, for a five-day deployment, and we have offered any further assistance as required.

"The SA volunteers have been selected for their expertise in dealing with flash flooding response.

"The volunteers and staff will provide support in areas from Brisbane to Toowoomba, and will be undertaking various tasks to support the Queensland SES in managing the flood and its impact on the communities affected.

"Queensland crews have been extremely busy over the past few weeks, and the severe weather across the state is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. Providing relief for their volunteers is critical.

"Within a couple of hours of putting the call out to our South Australian personnel, we were able to pull together twenty volunteers and one staff member who will provide support to the Queensland State Emergency Service.

"I, along with all South Australians, thank the volunteers for generously giving their time to provide vital assistance in Queensland's time of need.

"South Australians wanting to make a personal contribution can do so at www.qld.gov.au/floods.

"In Australia, we have a great tradition of joining together in times of disaster, and helping our fellow citizens.

"Poignantly, six years ago to the day, we saw nine South Australians lose their lives in the Wangary bushfires, and at that time, other States came together to offer us assistance as our Eyre Peninsula community came to grips with the tragedy."

[bajdas]

Stay safe....

From http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/11/3110285.htm stating 8 lives lost and 70 missing.

I know of three federal government offices who have closed today due to proximity to the Brisbane River and the king tide expected. The agency is anticipating to loose power of a few days.

[rescue5271]

Stay safe guys and girls. VIC SES are no longer sending crews due to flooding in Victoria along the river....

[Chinny]

This is a tragedy just unfolding before our eyes! Death toll now at 13 and expected to rise... :cry:

[vsteve01]

Parts of brisbane being evac

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/ipad/brisbane-flood-alert-as-wivenhoe-threatens-to-spill-over/story-fn6t2xlc-1225985477271

[rescue5271]

Just spoke to a EX CFS Volunteer who lives in brissy,King tide is due Wednesday afternoon and parts of town are flooding..To those SES members and staff going to QLD stay safe and thanks for giving up your time...

[riptide]

i would like to see cfs send over people, since our fdi's arent going to be high for at least a week, other states have sent some fireys...

[misterteddy]

i would like to see cfs send over people, since our fdi's arent going to be high for at least a week, other states have sent some fireys...

kind of agree....you'd have to think that somewhere in the state there'd be 50 or 60 blokes that would be happy for a few days break to be with their families

[misterteddy]

oh....and i notinced in the paper this morning somewhere the new Chief saying that only 30 SASES types could be spared at any one time.... is there a crisis in SA that I'm not aware of at the moment?

[riptide]

im sure we could send a strike team, composite of crews from all regions,

[boredmatrix]

oh....and i notinced in the paper this morning somewhere the new Chief saying that only 30 SASES types could be spared at any one time.... is there a crisis in SA that I'm not aware of at the moment?

or is it just a general lack of numbers?!

bearing in mind too that the riverland is expecting something to happen soon.....

[chook]

All of the states are sending small teams - mainly USAR & Swift water rescue types. The others are emergency management people. Its not really a case of feet on ground, QLD have plenty of those (two brigades of army for a start)- its specialist they are after (just like every other state in time of natural disaster).
And as Boardy said something will be happening in your state soon. With a lot of unstable weather around it would be rather risky sending people out of area that are not really required. Just a question - What would a strike team actually do?
cheers

[rescue5271]

This will be a onging operation and I know a large number of CFS members have already said to their regions they are willing to go.For now its a waiting game SA will have its own flood problems in about 2 months if not sooner...There will be lots of clean up work to be done and lots of search work,So I would say sit back and enjoy your time now with your family before the call for crews comes in...

[misterteddy]

Just a question - What would a strike team actually do?
cheers

Umm....how about replace crews in areas like Rocky, Mackay, Toowoomba, Brisvegas that have been on the run for 2+weeks on overtime and give them a chance to spend some time with families getting their own crap sorted out. It's not that hard to imagine their use is it?

As for the SES, well I always believed you fight the fight you have.....if and when the Riverland is in strife, well, its only a 18 hr drive/2hr flight back. Would have thought there was more than enough to do for a few bands of merry orange men (see my suggestions for using a Strike Team above).

Boredy might be right.....so what does that say about our preparedness in SA? Is it time for a change??

[jaff]

Just a question - What would a strike team actually do?
cheers

They would.......................STRIKE :-D....as a team of course!

[bajdas]

Media Release - SA Metropolitan Fire Service

MFS firefighters assist Queensland communities

Thursday, 13 January 2011

A contingent of 10 South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS) firefighters will fly to Brisbane today to assist the international emergency response to Queensland's devastating floods.

Please see attached Media Release, or visit www.mfs.sa.gov.au
------------------------------
As mentioned previously some firefighters who have specialised skills are also being deployed.

[Bagyassfirey]

looks to be plenty of jobs starting to pop up in the riverland this morning so ya might all get a ya feet wet a lot closer to home! Thoughts are with all queenslander's  :-)

[chook]

Sorry MT (& others)I wasn't trying to be a smart arse - just asking the question. As you & other Emergency Management qualified people would know it is the requesting state that has to ask its self a number of questions:-
1 What is it we are trying to achieve now?
2 Can we get that resource from within the state?
3 What are they expected to do?
4 Can we provide food, water, sanitation & shelter for them?
5 What qualifications do they hold & does that match our states quals (or similar)?
6 How do we manage them locally?
7 How do we pay for them? (no joking!)
eg many years ago I was deployed as part of a team to a town in QLD due to major flooding:- with us there were major teams from QLD fire & rescue (can't remember what they were called then), ambulance, police, SES, prison service etc. We just about doubled the size of the town population. However the town had no food, fresh water, medical facilities etc. We (the ADF) spent a lot of energy providing this, while some resources were gainfully employed a lot wasn't (lack of direction perhaps?) So large portions of the ADF team were sent home, latter other organisations just started turning up to "lend a hand". At the end of the day the locals felt they had lost control of their town & got very angry (part of the grief cycle as well)& some out of towners were not doing much but eating & drinking. I'm sure EMQ & its subordinate organisations would be manageing their team fatigue levels appropriately (just like we are in NSW)& if they couldn't do that with internal resources they would ask. Finally the ADF is the only organisation that can deploy totally self sufficiently including water filtration & power reticulation (plus they have Unimogs & Bushmasters - refer to ABC web site) so tend to be used in these sought of environments. So in closing my guess is the SA government has offered far more than what is being sent to QLD, but at this point in time they are not required. We have people here that want to go as well (our regional guy is up north plus a couple of other management types) but they have been told to wait (we will be busy ourselves again this afternoon). As I said I wasn't trying to be a smart arse just asking the question.

[misterteddy]

ahh Chook, as always you have eloquently outlined the beauracracy - bravo

Me....I kinda like the Lord Mayor of Brisbane's approach this morning on TV. Outlining the recovery effort was going to be enormous and require incredible resources, he just asked everyone with a piece of plant (bobcat, excavator or tipper truck) who was willing to spend some time helping to email him direct. They would be contacted today and given a street to turn up in.

As for the ADF, they have very limited uses in my experience as an ADF Officer and contingent leader on 2 Flood relief excursions (Forbes and Nyngan). They provide rapidly deployable helicopters and SAR (or firebombing) crews - State Governments almost never ask for these in time, and its a constant bugbear with ADF crews. Secondly, the Unimogs are excellent in flooded areas, high ground clearance and multi-wheel drive. C130 aircraft are useful but cant land in places the old Caribous could. Outside of that, they dont offer much at all. A Brigade of grunts is next to useless, other than as manual labourers. If you want 100,000 sandbags filled, use them and free up everyone else for important stuff.

One of the very well reported and researched phenominas in emergency management is the descending spiral. As tiredness, fatigue and personal dramas impact on teams, their performance drops. They will still report to their controlling agencies as being fully capable based on pride and driven by a need to help their own communities. It's an admirable and very natural human failing. If you doubt the effect that a bunch of interstaters has on a besieged community, then go back to the posts from the Vic Bushfires and our arrival in the first contingent in Churchill. The heartfelt thanks from the Churchill Brigade, many of who took off their yellows for the first time in a fortnight, were humbling, and left no doubt in my mind that early assistance is always appreciated.

However, you are right, and beauracrats and logisiticians will run the campaign, and there will be lots of emails about preparedness and rate of effort and blah blah blah......and the bloke from country middle australia that puts his backhoe on his truck, emails the Brissy Lord Mayor and turns up somewhere he's directed to, will be back home on his property, having cleared  a half a dozen streets, doing his part, by the time, we are looking for a printer to print more T Cards.

[chook]

So sad but so true :wink:

[bittenyakka]

What about the fact that QLD will need crews for a sustaind period of time.  SO sending small contingents will mean that we can offer help for a longer period and each deployment ony has 30 mouths to feed and beds to find rather than 1 lot of 100 or so.

Also it enables vollies to arrange time off work more as they could fesably be asked to deploy in 8 days time which allows them to sort out their SA jobs etc..

Still it is a lot of water.

[6739264]

Still the question needs to be asked what, if anything, can a group of untrained people bring to a situation such as this?

Sure, as others have said, if you need grunt work done, then groups such as the CFS can certainly lend assistance. Realistically if anyone should be going it should be the USAR Firies and SES (Both already deployed)

Don't forget that some of the hardest hit areas are going to need USAR teams in first before much else can be done. It's not quite a simple case of "Water's gone, lets cleanup"

Hopefully EMQ will continue to be sensible and ask early and big for assistance.

[misterteddy]

USAR...lolol....in fact rofpmsl. How did we ever exist without USAR

As for the untrained, well...I'm assuming there are still trucks on the run in all those towns, still attending non flood jobs, the RCRs, the Alarm calls, the fires, the cat rescues, still doing the usual hash and trash stuff....ahh but of course, one needs to be a tunnel rat to walk into an underground carpark, I forgot.

[bittenyakka]

so if there is always this great skills shortage then why won't CFS train us.......

[pumprescue]

Not to mention that 99% of Queensland town brigades are perms or retained, CFS can't cover it's own urban areas with trained people let alone send a heap of BA/RCR/HAZMAT crews to man their stations! MFS might be able to help.