IGEM Report 1: 2017-18 - THE CYCLONE DEBBIE REVIEW

Inspector-General Emergency Management

Themes

Q9a. In the lead-up to or during {EVENT} which, if any, of the following sources of information did you use? % of respondents

76 76

Bureau of Meteorology website

68

63

57

69

Some other news source – radio, TV, online

67

77

55

60

ABC News – radio, TV, online

53

49

55

49

Family, friends or neighbours

50

53

33

Your local Council or Local Disaster Management Group

37 37

23

18 19

State Government websites such as qld.gov.au

16

21

19

The Queensland Police Service / SES doorknocking

6 6

23

8

4 4

Facebook

6

3

2 2

SunWater / SEQwater / the dam operator

4

North Queensland

8

Whitsundays (n=306) Mackay (n=282)

6

Some other information source

7

Central Queensland

11

Rockhampton (n=307)

1 1 1

South East Queensland

Information sources used in the lead-up to and during the event.

None of the above

Logan / Scenic Rim / Gold Coast (n=305)

3

Source: MCR Community Survey

Despite the high traffic to council sites, the community survey showed the importance for communities of the Bureau and the ABC. An opportunity exists for councils to partner with these agencies or explore opportunities to maximise the message effect. Social media Social media played an important role during Debbie as a source of information and avenue to contact or interact with local councils, members of the community and other sources. Information made available through social media was also used to inform intelligence within the SDCC and LDCCs.

Information accessed by the public included a range of data sources, such as live feeds of river heights, road cameras and the ability to monitor data on rainfall levels as events develop. The Lockyer Valley Regional Council emergency management dashboard has a live map, rainfall, river heights, and social media feed. At the height of the event, the peak of website traffic was about 8,000 views, with an average across the event of 6,000 views. This represents a solid proportion of the population (32,000) using the dashboard. Whitsundays Regional Council noted that one post on their Disaster and Emergency Facebook page about evacuation zones had a reach of 440,855 people, and that its page followers more than doubled during Debbie.

Finding Our survey revealed that the

public currently uses the Bureau of Meteorology and the media as key sources of information. There are opportunities to link these sources more closely with information from local government and state agencies. The Office of the Inspector-General Emergency Management, is aware of a range of research activities that could be leveraged and intends to explore these in the future.

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The Cyclone Debbie Review

Lessons for delivering value and confidence through trust and empowerment