 Hi, there's a few familiar faces. Thank you very much indeed for coming to Kedron this morning to the State Disaster Coordination Centre. My name's Alistair Dawson. I am a Chief Superintendent in the Queensland Police Service. Provide you a brief overview on what's happening today and we'll start with the far north, sorry, Central Queensland. Well, Camptons currently, the Fitzroy River is at 9.1 and steady. There are still 170 people accommodated in the evacuation centre, and obviously that will be the case until such time as the water starts to drop. Coming down to St George in the west of the state, in the southwest, the river levels are at 13.18, they're falling slowly, and it will take some time for that peak to move past. However, there is promising signs from further upstream that the water is now starting to drop away. Maribor reached a high yesterday of around about the 8 metre mark in the Mary River. They're not expected to go any further than that at this point in time, even with additional water coming down the Mary River from Gympie. The second peak they anticipate to be in the area of about 6 to 6.5 metres. However, there is still work to be done in that area in regards to some localised flooding. As you're aware, there's been significant rain in the southeast corner of the state overnight, and in some cases up to 300 millimetres in a 24-hour period, and that's had an impact on Gympie. Gympie, the Mary River, was at 17 metres at 10.30 this morning and is rising. They are predicting that it could reach as high as 20 metres. This will have an impact on some businesses in the town, as well as some residents, and police and emergency services are currently door-knocking those affected residents and businesses. The town is in effect in two halves now, being cut by the Mary River, and the deployment of resources has been to both sides of the town to ensure that there is an effective presence across the community there. In Dalby, we're experiencing rises in the Mile Creek that has been rained in the banyas, and also in the local areas, quite heavy falls. That has now risen to 3.44. We're actually returning to a situation very similar to Christmas, and there are currently 11 self-evacuations from the caravan park there. The town is in effect again, cut in half by the Mile Creek. The resources have been placed on both sides of the creek to assist the town, and there are some very important messages that arise out of this. With flash flooding occurring in the southeast corner, we're actually asking motorists to take great care when driving, especially in heavy rain, and to be very cognizant of the road conditions. Drive to a speed that is safe for the road conditions on which you are driving, and that may be at a speed substantially lower than the actual posted speed limit on the road. The Bruce Highway is cut by water in a number of different locations, especially in the Gimpy area. There are reports that a large number of other roads throughout the southeast corner are currently affected by water, and some are impassable. We are asking people not to drive on roads that are flooded. There could be damage to these roads, or their vehicles could be swept from the roads by fast-flowing water. There are a number of rural communities across the southeast corner, quite a few to mention, but what we are doing is we're looking at those communities, we're looking at the ingress and egress for those communities, and we are working to free up the access for those communities. On the good news side of the front, the rain is expected to start to ease tomorrow, and we shouldn't have the repeat of the same heavy falls that we've experienced over the last 24 hours. I now pass over to Warren Bridgson from Emergency Management Queensland. Thank you. Thank you, Alistair. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. The event we experienced last night, and are still experienced in the southeast Queensland, is a major rain event, and certainly producing some major flooding events across the community. We stress again the importance of people in the community to prepare themselves to be isolated due to road cuts and to ensure that they have emergency kits available. If you are isolated, please be patient as the emergency services go about the prioritization of which people need to be looked after initially, and we will hopefully get to you as soon as possible. So if you are isolated, please refer to the documentation we've given you on our websites for emergency kits and what you need to do. Be patient, and you will be looked after as soon as possible. There are lots of roads cut as well, and people are not only being isolated, but now can't get into centres where they might need their resupplies, particularly medications. Emergency Management Queensland always assists the local disaster management groups to provide urgent medical resupplies, so if that is a case for you, please make contact with your local government and ask for the local disaster management group and state your reasons for requiring urgent medical resupply. Thank you. How worried are you about the prospect of flooding in Brisbane? That's a matter for the Brisbane City Local Disaster Management Group, and they are confident that this event won't produce major flooding other than the isolated flooding events which we see for events such as this. So you're not making major preparations for major flooding in Brisbane. That's a lot of judgement about 20 times today. I suggest you continue to try because I can't comment on what the Brisbane City Council are preparing for major flooding if they are. What are the effect of 20 metres of water in Gimpy? What are we expecting? We're expecting around about 65 businesses and possibly about 50 homes that could be affected there. They have started doing a lot of door knocking. There's a lot of local work that's been undertaken. Again, that's the local disaster management group and the district disaster management group are doing a lot of work in that space. Have you settled on the 20 metres because it is still raining up the backyard here? I would say to you that hydrology is always about predictions and estimations and they're constantly reviewing those figures. Based on the amount of water that is actually falling into the catchment area. In other words, are you adjusting this water every hour? I would say regularly, yeah. The amount of water on the hours is around about right and if not more frequently depending on the amount of rainfall. In Kilcoi I was advised that there were a number of people that were caught out in so far as about 15 local residents and a number of tourists were actually accommodated into a hall. Again, as the flash flooding starts to ease so they'll be able to progress along their way. Again, the local disaster management arrangements there's a number of these facilities around South East Queensland to cater for people that are caught between rising flood waters. A long range forecast for the sort of Queensland area? I know you get to forecast it going further than the other ones that we see. The forecast at the moment for us down here is easing tomorrow and then probably no or limited rain for Wednesday but then the rain will be more in the tropics up in the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Cape. Alright, so you're expecting flood waters to subside then? We're expecting the waters to last for a few hours and possibly the highway to be cut for probably up to a day but after that we expect them to subside fairly quickly. Oh look, I think people aren't actually worried and if it's your home that's under threat, yes, I think you would be very worried. I think probably a lot of communities are probably thinking oh here we go again given the fact that we've just been through some fairly significant events over Christmas and we understand their concerns because especially in the case of Dolby which is going back to the same sort of height limits that we have experienced over Christmas but again they're very proactive. We were on the phone late last night talking with the disaster management people in Dolby and they had a lot of proactive measures in place to warn residents. So I think you'll find a lot of the vehicles from low-lying areas have been moved to the showgrounds. There's quite a few vehicles there now. Losing, there's been a lot of concern about it but we haven't heard any direct reports of it. No, well I haven't received any direct reports either. I mean the focus for us here at the State Disaster Coordination Centre is a very strategic assistance required to support local and district disaster management groups and so the focus for us is about trying to solve those problems that are extremely complex in looking after the community in this time. How are emergency services going with fatigue as this whole situation continues on? Well we have a number of people that are assigned to manage fatigue and I know that in the local areas talking to the local police that they're managing that quite well we're talking to some different people at different times so what we're seeing is officers getting cycled through different shifts, we are working longer hours and I think that the community would expect us to do that but again there's plenty of time for rest at the end of the event and the main thing is that we stay focused on what we're facing now until such time as we can get the community through to the other side of that. You said the end of the event, the end of the event may well be able as we're out and going. Well yeah, I wish I had a crystal ball because it's one of those things where we've sort of moved from one area in the state now to the southeast corner. I personally hope that come midweek when the sun starts shining and the water starts dropping that we won't get any more rain for a while but I know that some of the long range forecasts are predicting still some more rain to come and it's important I think as we've indicated before that we are at the start of the wet season there is a potential for other issues to come up and again we must be prepared for those issues as they come. Well I think the focus at the moment is going to be Dolby as we speak, Gimpy as we've indicated we note the question in relation to Brisbane and in fact the Brisbane Disaster Management Group we're online today. The District Disaster Coordination Centre is up and running at Police Headquarters and the disaster district coordinator has stood up. We're advised that they're expecting only minor levels in some of those low lying areas so some of the streets and some of that can expect inundation. There is a lot of work still being done in that regard and I know that they're working very closely with the council to do that but again we're trying to maintain a very holistic view here right across southeast Queensland as well as central Queensland to make sure that we're looking at all the affected communities because as they cycle through we're still looking at places like Theodore and Condemine and Rockhampton and Emerald and what we're doing is making sure that as they cycle through the event that we're not neglecting those communities that are in need and that we're actually still meeting those demands and their needs as they're coming through. I think some people will still chance their arm they'll think oh look it doesn't look that deep but I do draw an analogy to an incident that occurred back in December where a four-wheel drive was driving on a road there was only 300 millimetres of water on the road and then it suddenly disappeared up to its roof line and the people had to scramble out and get on top of the roof of the four-wheel drive that is probably a very good example of what happens on flooding roads it's not so much as probably the speed of the water tearing off the top of the road but we're seeing photographs now of inundations through culverts where dirt has been taken out from underneath the road and it still looks to be in good condition and as vehicles are travelling across it so the damage is being caused to the vehicle and also to the road. Now the reason for highlighting this is that every life is precious we are finding people still want to engage in water activities we have performed a number of rescues in the Sunshine Coast with emergency service Swifwater Rescue from Queensland Fire and Rescue and what happens is it actually jeopardises the lives of those people who have got to come and rescue people so we're asking people just to exercise some patience and common sense and yes, there's plenty of ads out there that are saying think about this before you actually do it the objective on your journey is to arrive safely and it is really not about speed of travel at the moment I'm sure that there are quite a few people out there that believe that it's within their capabilities and we respect that particular understanding but again it comes down to we are talking about some record flood levels here we're talking about speed of water which in these sorts of streams and creeks are unheard of and the example is at seven knots estimated speed of say the Fitzroy River in Rockampton if you put that into kilometres it's a fraction of about 12 and a half kilometres an hour and that's the speed at which this water is moving and I think you have to put that into context it's not just a light rain in a slightly flooded creek we're talking significant flood waters record heights in some cases where we're actually working in uncharted territory about trying to calculate where the water will go and at what speed it will travel thank you very much indeed