An early warning system designed to give notice of severe weather events to residents throughout Brisbane and the south east of Queensland has failed, with messages coming either hours after the storm or not at all. Brisbane Mayor Graham Quirk is demanding answers as to why the early warning system – a collaboration between Fairfax Media's Weatherzone and Brisbane City Council – failed to alert residents to the severity and direction of Saturday's severe storms. Councillor Quirk said the ABC the issue would be tabled at today's cabinet meeting, saying he would expect a "full report" into what went wrong. "We have to get it right," he said. "We're coming into the more severe storms around later December, January and we need to make sure that things are in order with the new entity (Weatherzone)."Saturday's storm cells did not cause widespread damage, however two houses in the Brisbane area were engulfed in fire during the weather event, and a teenager was struck by lightning.
Mayor Quirk said there had been another situation where the company had sent out too many reports.The Weatherzone system was announced by Brisbane City Council in September. At the time, it was reported the new system would give people more timely and detailed information about weather events – as part of a free service. Mayor Quirk had told media: "The alerts will provide warnings for the dangerous and destructive weather events that our city is prone to". This morning the mayor was still encouraging residents throughout the Brisbane area to sign up to the service, in spite of the weekend issues.
http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/12/05/12/51/queensland-storm-warning-system-fails#WGsdA4irVsYt4Iom.99
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