 We are still planning for a very significant cyclone event to hit the coast around the Cairns Innisfail region. That means that the councils in Cairns, the Cassowary Coast, Hinchinbrook and Townsville are all in the process of relocating residents in the high-risk area in Waterfront and low-lying areas. At this stage there hasn't had to be any mandatory evacuations but we will continue to advise you throughout the afternoon. As I advised this morning there's been quite a lot of work done this morning on the Cairns Base Hospital. A decision has been made to fully evacuate the Cairns Base Hospital and the Cairns Private Hospital. Approximately 205 patients will be evacuated from Cairns Base Hospital and 50 from the Private Hospital. The Air Force have confirmed that they have sufficient aircraft to undertake the task and evacuations will therefore commence in the early evening. The Air Force aircraft have to be fully fitted out this afternoon and then transported to Cairns. This all Brisbane hospitals have been put on what's known as a Code Brown Alert. This requires those hospitals to make sufficient arrangements to accept incoming patients. They will do this wherever appropriate by cancelling elective surgery where possible and by early discharges where they can. I'll invite the Chief Health Officer to make some further comments but I'm advised that across all of the hospitals in the Brisbane and South East area these patients can be easily accommodated and there is an officer in charge at the receiving end of ensuring that patients are efficiently allocated this evening when they arrive in Brisbane. This is a very big exercise and we're checking the records but we're not sure that we've ever totally evacuated a big regional hospital like this in Queensland's history. As I said I'll invite the Chief Health Officer to make some comments about that further. Additional flights have been going into the region and there will be further attempts to get further flights in there this afternoon. For example Jet Starano has had two extra flights into Cairns, Qantas has had two extra flights into Cairns and is attempting to get a third flight in this afternoon. However we could depending on the weather conditions see some airports close as early as this evening so all efforts are being made to provide additional flights in this afternoon. We are also endeavouring throughout the afternoon to put in place arrangements for those people who do need to relocate but who are unable to do so with friends, family or workmates and we will have provided further advice about that mid-afternoon when we have all of the details settled. I'll invite the Deputy Commissioner if he wants to make any further comments and then the Chief Health Officer to add in relation to the hospital. Premier only that we're very very pleased that a large number of people have determined to self evacuate out of the danger areas by driving out and taking their families with them. We'd ask that people don't panic by in terms of petrol. There are good supplies of fuel in the Cairns and south of Cairns areas but this raises another issue and that is of road safety. Please I'm asking you those people who are self evacuating who are leaving by travelling south out of that area certainly we would like you to be very patient and very careful. The last thing we need is precious resources being utilised in dealing with road squabbles or certainly snails on our roads and we have large numbers of traffic police out assisting the volume of traffic to move south and to the west. Thank you. Thank you Premier. Given the information that health has been provided that there is a real risk that the hospital in Cairns will be inundated with water we made the decision to err on the side of caution and evacuate all patients from that hospital and the private hospital. We're doing it purely because we think that is the best for those patients given they are amongst the most vulnerable in the community at the time and we know we can do that safely with the assistance of ADF and we know we have the capacity in Brisbane to take those patients so I'm confident that that is the right thing to do by those patients. Questions? Can you just explain the condition that the patients are in that will be transferred? There will be all of the patients in the hospital so those will range from intensive care patients through to mothers expecting to give birth, through to dialysis patients coronary care patients, neonatal patients, premature babies, children. This is the entire hospital. Yes but we do this every single day in Queensland we've got a very big state and we move very sick patients around the state all the time so I'm very confident. No but that's where we have the capacity with ADF to do so and we'll be putting our doctors and nurses on those planes to move these patients safely. What time will those flights arrive this evening? Late evening. At the moment that's still been worked through logistically. There will be we'll have a staging post managed at the airport so we can manage the numbers that are coming in and then distribute them out to the hospitals in Brisbane. QAS has got all that in hand. That's been worked through with ADF at the moment. Current modelling certainly has cans as the largest centre likely to be affected by the crossing of this cyclone but still down south of cans wherever this crosses the area south of it will be hardest hit so we're still very concerned into that Cassaree coast area which is cities or towns like Innisfail, Mission Beach, Cardwell, further into Hinchinbrook and into Townsville. Premier what about some of the preparations for Palm Island and also remote Indigenous communities? The mayors of Palm Island, Woodger, Woodgill and Hopevale have been part of the state disaster management hookup and Palm Island has all of the storm surge modelling on the island and has put in place arrangements to ensure that people affected by storm surge can be located into other homes on the island. Similarly Woodger, Woodgill and Hopevale and of course Yarrabar, east of cans are all looking right now at the storm surge data and determining what if any relocations may need to occur. Yarrabar of course is particularly low lying and their council is working with the cans council and the Bureau to work through exactly where they need to relocate people to. Has the cyclone crossed any small islands? Not to my knowledge, no. I think the first thing that we'll see in our area, the cyclone crossed tomorrow will be the Bureau of Meteorology radar station on Willis Island where there are four Bureau staff who will be gathered in the one Cyclone category five proof building I would suggest. No. We have set up a phone line for people to register if they're evacuating and we'll provide some more information about that this afternoon but obviously people are doing this informally. They're going to their mother's place. You know staying with friends so no it's not possible to track exactly how many but we would be encouraging people later today once they have relocated to register and to let police know because their friends and loved ones from around Australia will want to know where they are and we don't want them to be inadvertently listed as missing. My understanding is that there isn't but the volumes are growing and we are encouraging people to make this decision early. If they're going to go now is the time to do it and we're taking what we consider a quite sensible action in this regard. You said this morning that you'd make a decision or a decision will be made by lunchtime today with regard to mandatory evacuation what's happening with that? Certainly mandatory evacuation can only be undertaken with the full support of the local councils and their meeting as we talk in fact I'm hoping to leave here and go and speak to the relevant officers and mayors straight after this meeting so certainly we will have a better idea by the next time we provide you with information this afternoon. How far away can you have to travel by car south to be able to danger zone? Well certainly Townsville is going to experience on current modelling the equivalent of a low Category 2 cyclone all the way down to about Home Hill and we're advised that Mackay will experience similar conditions to a Category 1 which is similar to what was involved with Tropical Cyclone Anthony just the other day. So in reality we would like people to get as far south as possible quickly as possible without of course breaking the rules but Mackay is probably a target area for the safe for complete safety. Premier have you worked out the alternative? No I'll invite Janet there is a couple of facilities being looked at but there is certainly ample emergency staff to provide emergency medical treatment and that will be available and we'll be in a position to give more precise information I would hope later this afternoon did you have anything to add to that? That's quite right Premier. Our concern is that the care and space hospital may will be inundated so people can't access it so we will set up an alternative emergency department elsewhere where we know it won't flood. What hospitals are the patients being taken to and how can we do something? At the moment we have Princess Alexandra, Royal Brisbane and Women's, the Children's Hospital, All On Standby and QE2. Buildings in north and far north Queensland since Cyclone Tracy, buildings built since then have been required to be built to Cyclone standards so whether they're homes or schools or any other office block they've been required under the building code to be built to a certain Cyclone standard. Obviously in well settled areas like Cairns there are many older homes that will not have been built to that standard and people who live in them will know that. That's why we're encouraging them to make sure that they are in the safest place that they can be. If it's not a silly distinction are you more worried about the wind or the flooding out of this or is it both? I'm advised that in Cyclone events, serious Cyclone events around the world, more people are injured or lose their lives in the water that is associated with storm surge than in wind and flying debris. Only because people are generally sensible and stay out of the wind and the flying debris. So in terms of what is more dangerous it depends on people playing safe and getting out of any area that might be subject to storm surge flooding and staying inside once the serious winds start. These will be highly destructive winds. They will be higher than we experienced with Cyclone Larry and they will be life threatening if people make it their business to go outside in them. So loss of life and serious injury ultimately will depend in some respects on people being sensible, listening to the warnings, taking advice and not treating this as a tourist event. It will be a display of the awesome power of nature but it's not something you want to go outside and watch. How long will you give them before you physically move? Certainly we hope that most people will move when instructed to do so. And if they don't, what's the latest that you will send people in to shift them? Well door knocking is already starting in these areas to warn people and to ask them to move voluntarily. The mandatory issue comes in when we actually direct them to move. The problem then becomes one of capacity if we have large numbers of people who are still in place that we're asking to move. Obviously there are practical issues in how do you actually forcibly ask large numbers of people to move when you're moving towards a very dangerous event like this. So there are some really critical factors in the practicality of... So what I'm trying to say is what's the latest that you can do? Certainly. This will go on throughout the night if necessary. As we've already said at about eight o'clock tomorrow morning on current predictions it will become dangerous and high risk to be driving about or walking about or doing anything outside due to the force of the winds that are expected tomorrow morning in the critical areas where the crossing will take place. Partly, but certainly it doesn't stop us working right throughout the night and we're capable of doing that. Will police have to control the streets for that reason? It's standard practice that all emergency services workers get to a point where they actually shelter in place too because we don't want them to put their lives at risk. We need them to be available to us immediately, the dangers passed to help deal with the post-psychotic event as well. Is that any much stupid enough to go out there on their own? That's pretty much right, absolutely. I mean, if people go out and purposely go out and get into strife, get into some difficult or create a high risk sending emergency services workers out into that environment is not necessarily practical or sensible. Yes. We will have an update from the Bureau at five and I'm already agreed to a number of live crosses into news with any updated information out of the five o'clock and there won't be any further updates after that. Not scheduled, but if anything dramatic happened we would of course advise you through alerts and other press releases. So, 3.30 here and then further advice out of the five o'clock State Disaster Management Group where we have the that'll be the latest modelling, the last modelling for the day from the Bureau and then no scheduled updates beyond that, but then again tomorrow morning at 9.30. I hope to have that by 3.30. Thank you.