Louise O’Riordan Metro North Health Incident Controller

Dr Liz Rushbrook
Metro North Health Incident Controller

• Lean forward

• Infrastructure

• Staffing

Lean Forward – INTENSE RAINFALL EVENT

This morning we have moved from STAND UP to LEAN FORWARD for the intense rainfall event (LEAN FORWARD – Code Brown). Every directorate has commenced damage assessment and recovery. The purpose of this LEAN FORWARD posture is to ensure we can respond to ongoing effects of this event and are prepared for the predicted storms and rain over the coming days.

Though there is sunshine today, the predicted storms and rain over the next few days combined with slowly subsiding flood waters and controlled dam catchment releases means it is likely that the Brisbane area will be affected by MODERATE flood level peaks (Brisbane River at greater than 2.6m height at City Guage) again later this week.  This morning the peak was 3.35m (~9am), this evening, the peak is expected to be just under 3m.

As of 13:30 today, more than 36,900 energy customers across south-east Queensland are currently impacted by power outages. The Brisbane River is closed until further notice. Train services remain suspended today. Brisbane City Council bus services are operating on a Saturday timetable. We continue to provide support to evacuation centres and flood isolated communities.

Also, with large bodies of water, conditions are ripe for mosquitoes to transmit diseases including Ross River virus, Barmah Forest virus and Malaria. The risk of diseases such as melioidosis and leptospirosis, which are caused by bacteria found in contaminated water also increases in the wake of flooding.

I urge you to stay informed at this critical time. Please stay tuned to messaging from authorities and the latest warnings from the Bureau of Meterology. When faced with a flooded road, back it up. Remember – if it’s flooded, forget it.

Infrastructure

Our Building, Engineering and Maintenance teams across the health service are very busy assessing damage and prioritising repairs. Please be patient as work needs to be done in the order to ensure the most impact on service delivery.

Campbell Place (CitiLink building) will be unusable until at least next Monday, possibly longer.

Staffing 

As the providers of an essential service, the community relies on us to be here for them. We know that some staff may not be able to get to your usual workplace due to road closures, flood impact or as a result of school closures.

If you are not able to get to your workplace for any reason, please talk to your supervisor. Where possible, we are asking staff to work at alternative locations to ensure continued service delivery. Another option that may also be considered is working from home.

The Chief Human Resources Officer provided information yesterday evening about leave options available to staff. This includes Special Leave (flood and storm leave) and Special paid discretionary leave for school, kindergarten and daycare closures due to impacts of weather events. The latter requires details of the school/facility that the children attend and the availability of alternative arrangements and/or remote work. If any line managers have questions regarding individual applications for Special Leave or Special paid Discretionary Leave, they should contact their local HR team.

We have been advised that most schools across south-east Queensland will be able to reopen tomorrow, Wednesday 2 March. Information on Queensland school closures can be found here.

Kind regards,

Louise O’Riordan and Dr Liz Rushbrook
Metro North Health Incident Controller