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Permalink Reply by John on March 2, 2009 at 9:34am

Thats a good way to let the civillians know whats going on.

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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on March 2, 2009 at 3:02pm

I've got mixed feelings.

It's very well reported that one of the first things to fall over in a major event is the phone system, so this would be rendered useless.

Not sure if they will use it for more extreme/urgent messages such as "get the f**k out, all hell has broken loose" (or similar!), or just these pre warnings.

There has been some problems with the system already- our Tasmanian neighbours appear to work off the same system so all of Tasmania was flooded wit hthe same message as the Vcitorians which has caused a lot of grief....

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Permalink Reply by Tony P on March 2, 2009 at 4:18pm

Also, message distribution wasn't all that good. The news service I watch said that the message would be sent out 'before lunch', I received it at 1430. My daughter-in-law was at my home, she uses a different provider and didin't receive the message at all. A neighbour two doors down, on the same service as Fiona did receive the message, but about 1.5 hours after me.

To use the system for "more extreme/urgent messages such as "get the f**k out, all hell has broken loose" would go against our primary aim of telling people to get the hell out early, the evening before or morning of a bad day. We don't want people flooding the roads while we're trying to get to the emergency area. I think it likely that the final report from the Royal Commission will say that the pictures many of us have seen of burnt out cars in the Kinglake area are because people left it too late, that they were leaving when the fire was already on them. I'm not trying to pre-empt the report, but this sort of thing has been seen at every major fire. Which is why the 'leave early' part of our warnings.

Do I think using the mobile phone network is a system that can be utilised? Certainly. Should it be how people expect to hear warnings? No. As you said Luke, telecommunications can often be the first to go down when danger threatens. Were you aware that the '000' system fell over on Black Saturday? As did our paging system. As did the mobile phone networks in 1997 during severe fires in the Dnandenongs.

Why do I think this shouldn't be the way people expect to receive warning? Because it cannot be guaranteed to get through. People will use the non-receipt of a message as an excuse to sue the government, or their telco. We flood the normal media with warning advice when it's seen as necessary. But despite this, despite the CFA and DSE Chief Fire Officers being interviewed and those interviews being broadcast the previous evening, people where saying immediately after Black Saturday that 'they 'didn't have any warning'. It's all part of the 'blame someone else', the 'why should I accept any responsibility for my actions' culture. (CFA and DSE are the two main bushfire firefighting services in Victoria)

Mobile phone text messages cannot be guaranteed to get through to every user. They cannot be guaranteed to go out immediately to all users. They cannot be relied upon as the principal method of disseminating warnings. Despite Australia being one of the highest (per capita) users of mobile phones in the world.

(Can you imagine all the phones going off in school classrooms yesterday? Because the kids don't turn the bloody things off during school?)

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