Each year, as the prospect of more extreme weather events build, so too do the stakes rise, and with it, the need for evacuation preparedness.

As I watched Cyclone Larry develop in its dice roll approach to land, as the ‘leader’ of Port Douglas, I was rather tense, to say the least. I had at the time been working on Tsunami recovery in Sri Lanka and tidal inundation atop 200k winds can do a lot more damage on a concentrated spot, that a Tsunami on a sunny day. Having had considerable ocean crossing experience, I am maybe a bit more wary about the power of the ocean than most, having had several life threatening experiences at sea.
I was also very concerned about the evacuation policies of the Douglas Shire and had on several occasions raised motions to beef up the evacuation policy, even being taunted by local SES who thought I was being alarmist when I pointed out the deficiencies in the evacuation policy. Gratefully, others aside of myself also became concerned, after events like Katrina hit the daily news, and with the added concerns, my calls for a re-written Evac policy were adopted, and Douglas re-designed its Evac policies.

I still, however, hold different views to the ‘authorities’ when it comes to their plan. My faith in the ‘authorities’ ability to handle matters was set back when on the approach of last year’s local Tsunami scare, not a word, either by phone or email was received from emergency controllers in Cairns, as the Tsunami theoretically headed towards us just after breakfast, convincing me we were not in safe hands. If it had happened at night and it was REAL, we would have been in big trouble. I qualify this by suggesting, from my experiences in and around Sri Lanka, that a barrier like the Great Barrier Reef would take the punch out of all but the worst Tsunami. A Cat 5 on high tide at night, is another matter.
My view, is that the non disclosure of first line evacuation points, is a policy that is literally, ‘up in the night”. It seems the evac centers are more designed to act as the place to get a cup of tea and a sleep after the storm has hit. In Douglas, most of the proposed evac centers are incapable of withstanding Cat 5 wind gusts without some dangerous collapse. To me, the safest and best place to be under and oncoming Cat 5, is in an underground basement several meters above sea level.
Sure, these basements may not make a suitable base for the next few days post cyclone, but it is just the first few hours at the centre of a passing cyclone that are of most concern to this former world sailor. I can wait for bed and a cup of tea whilst the worst of it passes. I want protection for myself and my community when the “shit is hitting the fan”. It is for this reason I find myself out of line with current thinking, that would, for example, deem the Mossman Sports Centre an evac centre, when it’s not designed to withstand Cat 5 winds.
The policy of running to friends ‘in high places’ at Kuranda or Mt Molloy is also fraught with danger to my mind, simply because the winds and rain in the build up to a nasty cyclone, could easily block these tree lined evac routes with fallen debris and create a massive traffic jam at a critical point in time. I am from the school of thought calling for two tiers of evacuation planning, one being for the initial blow and a second tier being ready for the post disaster clean up. The Trybrid Project which I lead is about designing fast response, post disaster rescue and my colleagues in the project are fairly familiar with the tasks at hand working in disaster work and we have a different approach and much greater concern about evacuation plans than the current ‘authorities’ proffer.
It’s better to be safe than drowned, so excuse me if I err towards more rigorous planning and from Clifton to the Bloomfield river, we have one of the most endangered zones in Australia, because of limited escape routes, low-lying land and our tendency to live close to the beach.
After Cyclone Larry, where I found myself helping friends at Innisfail after the hit, I was amazed at the economic damage done to the area through the failure of Ergon and others to provide cyclone ready power distribution. The years spent bleeding Ergon as a State Government cash cow, have left us here in the North with very substandard, cyclone prone power supply and the weeks waiting for electricity restoration in Innisfail did massive economic damage. I have been know to be a loud critic of Ergon’s failure to fund underground power and Ergon’s propensity and willingness to try andbill local communities huge sums to put their power underground has got to stop. This to me is as absurd as Telstra trying to bill a local council to lay optical fiber cables. Sorry, but I am no fan of Ergon’s power distribution policy.
Of concern to me is also the simple lack of Douglas SES numbers, when the pressure is on. In tourist dormitories like Port Douglas and Palm Cove, my concerns that a call for evacuation will be lacking in manpower between police and SES and with many hotel management staff inexperienced and with guests without cars, local knowledge and ‘friends in high places’, we have a nasty recipe for disaster if a Cat 3 suddenly intensifies at night and heads ashore to a resort zone, full of foreigners, who have no idea about the safety features of the Mossman Sports centre. My views are not held by all, but I personally would prefer to be in one of Port Douglas’ underground basements, elevated on Flagstaff Hill, or the equivalent in Palm Cove, than a building that is not designed to cope with Cat 5 wind load. As a builder/designer, no, we do not design many buildingsto withstand Cat 5.
In a nutshell, our disaster planning has improved, but there is a lot more improvement still needed. Vote for someone who is not across the risks here and you could be in dangerous hands when a nasty Cat 5 makes a night call.

CONTACT ROD DAVIS: vote@roddavis.org

MOBILE: 0418 235 561 or HOME: 0740 994434

MAIL: PO BOX 714, Port Douglas, 4877.