NEWS
More suburban households than ever before are ready to take whatever Brisbane’s summer storms throw at them, thanks to Council’s Brisbane – Ready for Summer campaign.
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk (pictured) said his $300,000 awareness campaign had already had a huge response from residents keen to do everything they could to protect their homes and families.
“It’s been a rough few summers for Brisbane and I know the devastation of the January floods and even The Gap storms in 2008 are still fresh in many people’s minds,” Cr Quirk said.
“As a result we all need to be diligent about ensuring our homes and businesses are prepared for disasters ahead of time.”
Cr Quirk said the campaign had already led to a 17 per cent increase in subscriptions to the free Early Warning Alert SMS Service, with 55,483 people now signed up. He repeated his call for every Brisbane household to make it a priority.
“Personally I think this is one of the most important things people can do ahead of the storm season. It only takes a couple of minutes to join and doesn’t cost a cent but provides invaluable warnings about any severe weather conditions that are approaching Brisbane,” he said.
“Council is doing everything it can to make sure Brisbane is prepared for any severe weather conditions that may head our way this summer, including spending $50 million on stormwater drain upgrades, $17 million on clearing stormwater drains inundated in the January floods of mud and debris, and $2.5 million on supporting local SES volunteers.
“But there are also simple things like cleaning gutters and drains, raking up dry leaves and trimming trees away from roofs that you can do to help minimise the risk of damage to your home this storm and bushfire season.”
At just over the halfway point of the campaign there have been more than 43,000 FloodWise Property Reports downloaded by residents to investigate a property’s flood risk, as well as 22,400 Flood Flag Maps.
“We’ve seen some great results so far showing that residents are taking action to be better prepared for severe storms, fire or flooding this summer,” Cr Quirk said. “If you haven’t already done so, I encourage residents to clean their gutters and yard of loose items, prepare an emergency kit, sign up to the free Brisbane Early Warning Alert Service and find out their flooding risk by downloading the Flood Flag Map for their suburb or a FloodWise Property Report from the website – www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/beprepared”
The Lord Mayor said the ‘Brisbane – ready for summer’ campaign would run until March, and included advertising on radio, social media, newspapers, online and billboards.
