Alarm gets jump on flood threats
A NEW flood alert system may help buy residents of Glenorchy, Hobart and Kingborough precious time in the event of a natural disaster.
The councils of the three municipalities have collaborated on the $ 500,000 project, which has created a faster way to get flood warnings out to the community.
“It’s about data sharing between councils as well as the SES and Bureau of Meteorology to give us those pre
cious seconds, minutes or hours’ alerts and warnings if there’s going to be a flood in our cities,” Glenorchy Mayor Kristie Johnston said.
“Previously, the systems weren’t talking to each other – we were very reliant on people being able to communicate whereas this is a really hi- tech system which enables us to get that early- warning system in place.”
The project was funded through $ 250,000 from the federal government’s natural disaster resilience grants pro
gram and in- kind support from all three councils.
“We can for the first time monitor in real time – our alarms went off for the first time over Christmas so we could see change to do with tidal shifts,” Kingborough Mayor Dean Winter said.
“It’s not just to do with rainfall; it’s also when there’s a large rain event, it depends what the tides are doing particularly for us in places like Browns River where a high tide and lots of rain is the most likely scenario where
we’re going to see large- level flooding.”
Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds said the latest data on the record May 2018 floods showed more than 8000 Hobart properties had been affected and Hobart alone lost $ 16m of city council infrastructure, which is more than 10 per cent of the council’s annual budget.
“We’re all vulnerable to fast- moving water, living in the shadow of the mountain,” she said.