Flood inquiry finds failures in warning system

By Georgia Tacey

Oct 17, 2023

Flood inquiry: The Victorian Government has heard evidence about problems with the emergency alerts. Photo by Megan Fisher

The parliamentary inquiry into last year’s flooding event has uncovered issues with Victoria’s Emergency Management warning system.

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Evidence given in the recent hearings highlighted how uninformed regional communities were during the flooding events.

It heard that emergency alerts weren’t issued to many residents whose homes subsequently experienced flooding.

There was also a lack of regular updates on the app, especially regarding road closures.

State Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh said the issues with the warning system were a failure by the Victorian Government.

“Regional communities experiencing flood have consistently said how they were left confused or with a false sense of safety by unreliable and often shambolic messaging issues by the VicEmergency app,” he said.

“The inquiry discovered that local knowledge about past floods was disregarded, and messages were frequently disorganised or failed to reach those in jeopardy.”