Call for CDSS Sirens in Queensland

CDSS Online Petition - Queensland

This is an online petition and a call for the Queensland and Australian Government or relevant authorities to install a series of CDSS (Civil Defense Siren Systems) within the Queensland community to decrease the relay times of warning information for the interest of public safety prompting swift evacuation measures and potentially saving lives.

In the aftermath of one of the biggest natural disasters in Australia's history - the January 2011 floods - there is a strong community desire to have warnings of severe weather and other impending dangers audibly relayed to the community to assist in quicker evacuation times. Currently warnings can be issued via SMS, television, radio and online however some members of small communities simply do not have these resources at their disposal to receive the warnings.

Already Australia has a few of these systems in place with the largest system in Sydney's Central Business District. This CDSS consists of a series of 98 electronic sirens, making up a large-scale public-address system (the "Sydney CBD Emergency Warning System") and including 13 variable-message signs that are installed in the Sydney central business district. While installed in the months preceding the 2007 APEC conference, they are designed as a permanent fixture and are tested on a monthly basis. Smaller-scale sirens are also deployed around the country like the Model 5 or Model A, used at fire stations for call-outs and at Sydney's beaches for shark alarms.

A CDSS is also located at the Kwinana BP plant south of Perth, which is tested every Monday. It is used to evacuate the plant in case of an emergency and can be heard in Kwinana and certain parts of Rockingham. It can also be used to warn of severe weather and potential dangerous emergencies on the Kwinana Industrial Strip.

As outlined in the Queensland Emergency Management Standard Emergency Warning Signal Guidelines, it is vital that the status and effectiveness of the SEWS is maintained by limiting its use to significant events only. Such events will be restricted to:

- Wind Gusts >125 km/h (for example tropical cyclones of category 2 and above or their wintertime equivalents).

- Storm Tide > 0.5 m above Highest Astronomical Tide.

- Large Hail > 4cm in diameter (corresponding to > golf ball size).

- Tornado(es).

- Major Flood, Flash Flood and/or Dam Break.

- Intense Rainfall leading to Flash Floods and/or Landslides (1-6 hour rainfall total > 50 year Average Recurrence interval).

- Geo-Hazards including effects of Earthquakes and/or Tsunami Waves > 1m (tide dependent).

- Major Urban and Rural Fires.

- Major Pollution, Hazardous Material or Bio-Hazard Emergency.

- Civil Defence Emergency (as defined in Article 61 of Protocol 1 of the 1977 Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949).

- Other major Emergency situations.

We urge you to help sign this online petition to assist in having these systems installed primarily throughout populated areas and towns of Queensland. Once this system is implemented throughout the region, the content of warnings and dangers will reach the community almost instantly with audible soundings of the Standard Emergency Warning Signal. When disasters loom or a major emergency happens, Queenslanders will be alerted by the sound of the Standard Emergency Warning Signal (SEWS). SEWS is a wailing siren sound used throughout Australia for various emergency events of major significance, such as cyclones, flooding and severe storms. When residents hear the signal, careful attention is then paid to the message that follows and action is immediately required on the advice given. In some cases, evacuating your home and positioning yourself out of harm's way may be required in a matter of minutes which has been the case with residents of the Lockyer Valley during the largest-scaled flood event in history.

Next time it could be your life the CDSS saves.