Communication Strategies during the floods of January and February 2011

Peter StanleyRegional Officer Emergency Management,Victoria State Emergency ServiceMEMEG Forum Friday 24 June 2011

Lead up to Jan- Feb 2011 Floods

>10 years of drought prior to September 2010 floods

September 2010 Up to 250mm in NE & Alpine areas Up to 100mm in Western Victoria

October, November & December 2010 Further rain events wetting catchments Catchments saturated so there is little or no ability for the

rain to be absorbed. All rain becomes ‘run off’ Some communities impacted multiple times

Wettest year since 1974 (5th wettest on record)

Dimboola area

Pre - Event Community Messaging

• Strong and proactive media campaign

• Pre-activation of Flood & Storm info line - 1300 VICSES

• Emergency Management Joint Public Information Committee (EMJPIC)

• Pre-briefing of media partners and EM broadcasters (broadcasters very cooperative during the event(s)

• Variable message signs - major roads

• Support from senior levels of government

• Levee owners requested to check integrity (ownership issues)

• The ‘Queensland effect’ Jan 2011 had a strong effect on public perceptions and expectations

Swan Hill area

Community Consequences

• Major damage to agriculture• Road and rail infrastructure• Impacts on downstream industries• Water and sewerage• Loss of utility services• Isolation

Swan Hill area

Looking NW. Kerang to the East

Kerang area

Community Information During Event

• Flood Bulletins on website and sent to local media

• Community Newsletters (including translations)

• Website, Facebook, Twitter

• Flood & Storm Information Line – 16,800 calls (24 Feb)

• Community meetings (local and radio)

• Radio / TV interviews (daily press conf)

• Door knocking at risk and affected areas

• Emergency Alert- 76 campaigns, 141 key msgs

• Newspaper Adverts including with NSW

Community MeetingsCommunity Meetings

Community Information

• Facebook - from 800 to 4,000 fans and enormous two way feedback

• From about week 2 of the event(s) each press conference was filmed and uploaded to the Facebook page. Terrific response from the community and very positive comments about being ‘able to view the whole thing, not just a 4 – 5 second grab on the news’

• Facebook page linked with many of the ‘groups’ that were started during the flood, which facilitated information being disseminated to the wider community

• Some direct enquiries received from the public

ABC Radio

• On-air Community Meetings• At the height of the flooding each VICSES Region spoke live

at 1000hrs, 1500hrs and 2000hrs and provided a situation update to the local audience, including key messages and concerns.

• ABC would then upload these to the ABC Facebook page. These were downloaded more that 8,000 times during the event(s)

Other Broadcasters

• Some other broadcasters remained on-air 24/7 at the height of the floods.

• Some Community Meetings were broadcast live e.g. Jeparit• Radio stations very keen to help and would break into normal

schedule to allow messages to be broadcast

Jeparit Jeparit area

VICSES – Web hits

Opportunities

• Multi agency incident management and interoperability

• Use of flood consultants

• Use of Emergency Alert

• Intelligence and Social Media

Looking SW to KerangSwan Hill area

Questions ?