 Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much indeed for your time today. I'd just like to provide you with a bit of an overview on what's happened in the last 24 hours in regards to the flood situation that Queensland is currently experiencing. It's great sadness that the fisherman that was lost at Bourne Island was recovered today and again, it was a great tragedy. Just in, we have information that a car was washed off a causeway to Aramac, which is located basically between Emerald and Winton, and the vehicle has unfortunately been washed into floodwaters and one person has actually lost their life. Again, a great tragedy and I'd like to reinforce with the community not to drive through flooded roads or cross flooded roads, but more importantly, pay attention to road clothes signs. We are there for a purpose and that purpose is the protection of life. As soon as we can open roads, we will and we are working very closely with Department of Transport and Main Roads in that regard. Just to provide an overview at the moment, the Rockhampton is currently experiencing water levels around about the 9 metre mark at the moment and there has been a number of disconnections for power in some of the low-lying areas such as a depot hill where the water inundation is expected. The evacuation centre is up and running. The numbers currently in the evacuation centre are low. However, the local government is anticipating the numbers to rise in that particular area. The airport is still closed and it will be closed for probably some time. Water is still coming up onto the runway and there's about 700 metres of actual bitumen or runway still left. The disaster management operations are operating out of that with their helicopters and doing local resupply. We are resupplying into Rockhampton. We are working very closely with the Australian Defence Force and the Retailers Association and air lists of essential items are actually now being moved into Mackay and then being tracked to the south down into Rockhampton. The other areas of interest for us today is of course the Vince Leicester Bridge is now starting to reappear from the water. There is water, we revise on the approaches to the bridge. It is open for local traffic. That is local traffic that needs to make the crossing as one lane. We do apologise for the inconvenience to the motorists. However, it is a necessity to ensure that the bridge is safe and we will then look at further openings of that bridge later on. The swinging back down and around the water is actually receding at Emerald, I should say, and it is starting to return and some of the access routes are starting to open up now. Swinging further down towards Sirat and St George, we're looking very closely at those two communities. They are very resilient communities. Their planning is well advanced and they're looking at possible water rises around about the March 2010 heights. As has been reported, a medical facility has been redeployed to St George from the Queensland Ambulance Service as a precautionary measure to assist the community down there and we are working very closely with all government agencies and also emergency services. Of interest, we are warning people going back into their homes to be very mindful of their safety and their health and to also keep an eye out for wildlife as well that is in the area. In places such as Condomine, we are erring on the side of caution there. As the waters are receding, there is a fair degree of work that's got to be done in that area. We understand people's needs to return to their community and we do understand that. We have been talking with the disaster district coordinator and the disaster district management group in that area who are communicating with the community and also with the local government and there are plans to start slowly looking at what work needs to be done there before we actually put people back into that environment. With people that are actually in the recovery phase and are actually cleaning out their house, we're saying please don't leave your valuables lying around outside. We do understand the need to obviously place mats and some other items over fences to help dry out and what we're saying to people is this, that is not an invitation to scavenge through people's property. People are putting that material out to dry and we would ask that people respect the people's property that is drying. People have already suffered enough trauma as it is without being taken down that path. There have been 10 deaths associated with this flooding event since it started and of course with the recent one at Aramac is a great tragedy and I really want to urge people to be cautious around water. We're still having reports of people that jump into water to try and swim. The Fitzroy River was reported anecdotally at being at 7 knots which in essence is about 12 kilometres an hour and it is extremely unsafe to do that and will end in tragedy and it takes up immense amounts of time for rescuers and resources into a dangerous environment and we would ask people not to do that. The other thing we're asking people not to do is drive around flooded roads through communities. They are creating a bow waves and those bow waves do enter people's property so there might be a small margin between having water under the house to having water through your house. If people drive along a road and create a wash and a small wave, that is a difference between having no damage inside your house to having damage in your house and we are saying to people please don't do that. It's a very simple message respect your community, respect your neighbours and give them the space that they need to actually recover from this disaster. I will now pass to Warren Britson from Emergency Management Queensland who has a couple of points that he would like to raise. Thank you. Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. My name is Warren Britson. I'm currently the Assistant Director General for Emergency Management Queensland. A couple of points I'd like to bring to your attention today is your transference of the information out into the community and that is people who are thinking about cleaning up their homes or returning to their homes they should contact their insurance provider to get the actual facts about what they can and can't do. We've been told that there's a lot of rumour and innuendo out there in the community and some of that is not factual at all. The Australian Insurance Council has issued a fact sheet. They call it a fact sheet and we're encouraging people to access that and read it and also listen to your media where the correct advice can be given about matters. To give you an example, some people are hearing that they can't do anything with their house until the insurance assessor arrives and that may not be correct after you contact your insurance provider. The other issue is we are currently looking at fatigue management for our state emergency service volunteers. They've been working extremely hard now since before Christmas and tomorrow is a work day when most people go back to work after an extended holiday period. Some of our state emergency service volunteers do have to return to work tomorrow. So we're looking at fatigue management and also replacement of persons who we may lose now as they go back to their place of work. Part of that is we're discussing with South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales who have offered their support. So we have a planning process happening now with those three state SES people who want to give us assistance. Right now today, five personnel from Victoria, Vic SES have arrived here and they're currently working in this building. They are what they term flood experts and they're here giving us assistance. Thank you, that's all I need to announce. Well, I'll open it up for questions. I'm sure there'll be some. Can we get a rest for Loody? Sorry? Have you made any arrests for Loody? In regards to that, there's been a media release this morning in Rockhampton about what I understand to be non-flood related matters and I'd probably ask if I could refer you to that because I don't have the finer details on that one. I'd probably be able to do that later. It had just come in before I walked into the room. So I do apologize for not having... Is it around lunchtime today? I'm not sure of the timing. We just got told before we walked through the door so I thought I'd share that with you. So just one person in the car or you don't know? I think there was two. I think that one person unfortunately lost their life and one has survived. How did that happen? I'm not sure of the timings of that. I will need to get that for you. Would you speak generally about Loody? Well, all I can say is at the moment I haven't had any advice provided to me about flood related stealing. But what we're saying to people is that to take care of their property to be mindful about not putting valuables out to dry and to obviously keep an eye on that. There are unfortunately some people around that will think that this is a good opportunity to take advantage. And what we're saying to people is to be security conscious about your valuables as you would do any other time. We have moved additional police into the community, such as we moved additional police into Rockhampton. We moved additional police into Emerald. We moved additional police into St George and Sarat. And we also moved additional police into Alpha and Jericho. So where communities are being affected we are actually moving additional resources into there to provide enhanced police and coverage. And we've had police in Theodore and Condamine as well the whole time. Warren, if I could just ask you is when the South Australian or New South Wales people might be up to new reward? I can't give you a definitive answer. No, we don't think the next couple of days. We've got a lot of state emergency service volunteers in Queensland as well who we can use. So we're looking long term. This event will be long term for our SES volunteers and because we are in the beginning of the wet season, we do expect further rain, further events. So that assistance will be long term, certainly not in the next couple of days. So we've got other people on standby that can take over from the ones that are... That's so right. People in those states have offered and we've taken their offer up and just asked them to be on standby. Just about food. Are there any food shortages in any communities at all? I haven't been made aware of any. What I have been advised though today is that the local disaster management groups are keeping up with the resupply of smaller communities. The larger communities such as Rockhampton and beyond those plans are well advanced again talking with the Retailers Association but also with the Australian Defence Force who have started their airlift today going basically ambly to Makai. But there are plans well in advance in regards to quite a wide range of challenges that we face and as each of those challenges are brought forward, we're actually putting in place those plans to address those. We are trying to do that in a very timely manner to be in front of the timelines and to date what I have been advised is that that is the case. So no food shortage at this stage? To the best of my knowledge, no. But what we are proactively asking out through the disaster management networks for any needs for resupply to be brought forward. But just on that, we're also pre-positioning a lot of cleaning fluids and cleaning equipment to assist people in their endeavours to clean up. And I know Emerald has a central store which is through their local disaster management group and a lot of the consideration is not just around essential food items but also cleaning and also medical supplies which we are moving on a regular basis. And do you know what sort of stuff that the ADF are taking from Emerald? No, I don't unfortunately. I think that's been arranged between the Retailers Association and the Resupply Committee. Can you? I'll give you a rough idea. The negotiations with the Australian Retailers Association was that the ADF would uplift what we call essential items without going through a great list. It's generally exactly that, the essential items. And they can be, of course, baby supplies. And I know for instance there's a lot of nappies on board. So it's what's considered essential for the community in Rockampton. And today's not the only... that'll be ongoing. There's more of those plans? No, the plan is to do the uplift today and we hope by tomorrow or at least the Australian Retailers Association hope that by tomorrow some other links will be available. Do you know how long Rockampton may cut off? We think that Rockampton could be isolated probably for anywhere where the road routes are opening up to the west. So we can actually utilise those road routes as well to resupply. Police are working very closely with DTMR in that particular space and I should clarify that's Department of Transport and Main Roads and to reopen road systems as soon as possible. But again, the priority needs to be around the resupply of communities. That is a primacy for our objective in this operation. And what about the Rockampton Airport? Any idea how long that might be? Well the Rockampton Airport will be closed whilst there is water across the runway. Then obviously once the water recedes they will have to be ongoing engineering assessments of the runway to make sure it is safe. To give you a definitive date is very very difficult because it's a great unknown. There are people that we don't intend to have things closed for any longer than is absolutely necessary. We understand the importance of these routes and these facilities and we understand that the hardship that it does cause and we are very mindful of that. Just to get why go to Mackay with this airlift rather than to the airport? The helicopters can get in there but the amount of goods and the weight and the size of what we're taking is the Outland Fixing Aircraft in Rockampton. So the closest place to land and to repackage and send down is obviously Mackay and that plan at the moment is considered to be the best plan that we're using. Obviously we revisit our plans on a regular basis. We look at what other options are available and how we can do things better and we're continually looking at that including the road networks and looking at alternatives in that regard. And once it goes to Mackay it gets trucked down does it? Yes it does it gets trucked down into Rockampton. The roads to the north of Rockampton the highway is still open at this time however the road and the rail to the south is closed at this time due to the flood waters. What is the weight of the aerials now? I can't answer that one unfortunately. Do you give any estimate at all for how much stuff is going on? I would say about 15 pallets and I would anticipate that they would be 15 pallets. Do you have any idea when you said it was a slow process going methodically with condomine? Do you know when people might be able to return? I don't at this time and when I say a slow process I don't mean slow as in pace of slowness but it's a case of being careful and mindful of things such as power sewerage and also what's been washed down and washed out of condomine itself. So we need to do reconnaissance into the town and then we need to work with people to go back there but that is a local plan that's been put together at the local level in Dolby in consultation with the community there and we will be moving as fast as we possibly can to re-establish what we need to do with all communities. Theodore and Emeril Well Theodore at the moment the disaster district has sent representatives to Theodore today they are meeting on the ground they are with the local disaster management group they are looking for their first opportunities in receding flood borders to start their work and again it's about making sure that they can identify what utilities can be switched on with homes and businesses inspected electrically to make sure when the power is reconnected that everybody is safe that is not only emergency service workers but also the people that are returning to their homes and we will also be working in the space of providing cleaning fluids and equipment into that area to assist people. Emeril to clean up is one of the ways we've heard the estimation that houses has been revised the number of houses that have had water in and around the yard still stands in the thousands people are slowly returning back to their homes it's a long journey for these people and it's a heart-breaking journey they've experienced losses and tragedies that most of us can't relate to but this event has affected over 200,000 people of our community across a vast area and it will be a very long process but it is a process that communities are forging ahead with and they're at the moment doing a sterling job and we would like to thank the volunteers the Red Cross other non-government and government organisations that are working very closely together to restore these communities Has the government given you a reassurance of whatever resources you need part of what we do is about harnessing the resources that are available across the state and making sure that all resources and efforts are directed to those organisations to those communities in need and that is part of what we do on a day-by-day basis I can't answer that all I know is that the pellets of goods is something that has been arranged for resupply between the Retailers Association and obviously the resupply committee here which involves members of the Australian Defence Force they have left it will be an ongoing thing at the moment until such time as other resupply routes open up and as they open up so we will start to look at alternative methods of providing resupply to our major towns and cities Is there just one chopper going? No, they are fixed-wing aircraft so we are flying into Macau and I believe they are C-130s C-130s, three flights So there are opportunities there both in Macau and in Hamburg Three flights today or? And how long does it take to get up there? I have no idea sorry And that will be ongoing tomorrow? At the moment, I think is it planned for tomorrow? No, it is just planned for today at the moment but one of the dangers of course in resupply is oversupply so we have to be very mindful that we don't pump so much resources in there and kill people with kindness as well. So we are talking with people on the ground up there the local store operators are talking with their suppliers and we are talking with the local police and what we are trying to do is make sure that we don't uplift more than what they need You said essential items mentioned in Appies but we are talking food, clothing Essentials for maintaining life so things that you would need on a day by day basis to maintain life. That is all free isn't it to the people like it is not like it is going to Coles and Woolworths? No, it goes into stores for sale as it would normally do I believe that is the arrangement there. So what it is about is about maintaining the functionality of the town So Coles and Woolworths may not? I am not sure which stores they are but they are about maintaining the functionality so if you go to a shop then you should be able to buy bread and milk those sorts of things and nappies You did this because these stores were empty? Some of the stores there was a rush on buying so there was a need to provide that resupply and in cases such as Emerald those stores are currently being planned for resupply they are cleaning them out now and those stores will be resupplied we are thinking probably today Thank you very much indeed Are the Emeralds separate to Rockhampton? No, at the moment what is happening in Emerald is the road routes are opened up so a lot of the resupply for Emerald is being organised at a local level and so what they are saying locally is that we have got to handle on this we can manage this what they lift up is what they need from the state so our job is then to provide that resupply where they can offer the resupply Thank you very much