Emergency Management Victoria has admitted that its warning systems failed flood victims in eastern Victoria in June last year.
By the time authorities issued their evacuate now notice for Traralgon residents at 10am on Thursday, June 10 2021, many of those who live near Traralgon Creek were already inundated with water.
"That says someone wasn't watching the whole monitoring network or properly transferring that information."
Almost a third of residents surveyed by Emergency Management Victoria (EMV) did not recall receiving any warning or alert prior to the extreme weather event, and of those that did, only one‑fifth (19 per cent) believed warnings contained enough information to take appropriate action.
The report has also highlighted the need for non-technical language for flood warnings and more clarity about the differences between minor, moderate and major flood warnings.
Ms Bath said the report had fallen short of community expectations and failed to incorporate any meaningful change.
"It actually doesn't have any findings or recommendations for EMV or for the community to have confidence that the flood and storm events that ripped through Gippsland won't actually affect them to the same degree," she said.
Authorities concede evacuation order came too late
EMV commissioner Andrew Crisp praised those involved in the relief effort but conceded there were shortcomings.
"There were challenges ... intelligence gathering, communication, and warnings were affected by the extreme weather and the significant impact on critical infrastructure including energy and telecommunications," Mr Crisp said.
He said prior to the evacuation order, authorities issued an emergency warning about 4am on the day of the floods.
"That was acknowledged by the incident controller at a public meeting only a couple of days after the event itself."
He said while the report did not contain recommendations "per se", it did contain lessons for authorities.
Hard to get flood warnings right
The EMV report concedes, that emergency personnel found it challenging to provide accurate and localised warnings during the June 2021 flood due to high winds, which uprooted trees and brought down power lines.
The report details that in this storm the winds were unusual in that they came from the south-east, exposing large and typically sheltered trees.
"The ability to accurately warn for high-end, localised, damaging to destructive winds is limited by the complexities involved in predicting the structure and evolution of these systems," the report states.
All contact lost
The June 2021 storm caused widespread power outages across Gippsland, leaving many residents stranded without power or communications.
And work to restore electricity took too long due to extensive damage to the power distribution network and accessibility issues for AusNet crews.
"High dependence on technology and the internet to disseminate and receive information created challenges during this event and resulted in reports of some community members being unable to access information in the days following," the EMV report states.
Changes afoot
Emergency Management Victoria said Victoria was the first state in Australia to implement the new "Australian Warning System" in 2021 to provide clearer messaging around future disasters.
The Inspector-General has completed a review of 10 years of reform in the emergency management sector in Victoria.
