Alerts ‘discredited for truth’

VIC EMERGENCY warnings during October’s flood emergency had been discredited as a source of truth, Loddon Shire has told a Victorian Parliament inquiry.

The council has used its submission to the Legislative Council committee to criticise warning systems, response co-ordination and mitigation communication.

Ahead of public hearings in Rochester and Echuca, council’s submission was published on the Victorian Parliament website last week with the shire saying flooding had left a $36 million damage bill for roads and bridges and a further $8 million of damage to sporting pavilions, halls, canoe launching facilities and walking tracks.

Mayor Dan Straub wrote that Agriculture Victoria estimated the farming community had lost more than $100 million in cropping and more than 3500 livestock. And he says nature-based tourism and economic development slowed significantly during and after the flood with a $2.5 million downturn.

“Due to the warning ‘life-cycle’ in the Vic Emergency application, warnings were issued and reissued a number of times, sometimes after water had long receded. Because of the volume of warnings being issued/reissued both prior, during and after the event, the Vic Emergency notifications were somewhat unvalued, ineffectual and discredited as a source of truth during the event,” Loddon Shire’s submission says.

“Further to this a large number of flood warnings on the Loddon River were issued at locations like Bridgewater-on-Loddon and Newbridge townships. These warnings resulted in water levels ranging from no impacts on the community to significant impacts like those experienced in October 2022.

“This further exacerbates complacency with the warning system. The parameters of the warning categories need a review to make them more meaningful to the community.

“Given the high rainfall experienced over months prior to the October flooding, council had checked the township stormwater flaps to ensure flooding rivers were unable to backflow into towns via the stormwater system. Council also undertook a sandbag audit and replaced UV impacted sandbags with a stock- pile of 25,000 sandbags stored at depots across the municipality for early distribution.

“During the event, the state provided a further 60,000 sandbags. Additionally, sand stockpiles were in place at our depots and local suppliers also had a reasonable quantity of sand for this purpose.

“Council also had equipment in place to support closure of the Loddon Valley Highway and construction of a levee across the highway to protect the township of Serpentine.”

Cr Straub says that despite years of advocacy for a mobile phone tower to be installed, Newbridge and Bridgewater have limited or no mobile phone reception further inhibiting communication and alerts during emergencies.

“It would be helpful to understand if inflows to Laanecoorie from the larger Tullaroop and Cairn Curran reservoirs would al-