Queensland Premier David Crisafulli has criticised “flawed” changes to the Bureau of Meteorology’s (BOM) website in the aftermath of a severe thunderstorm which left tens of thousands without power across the state’s south-east.
Changes to BOM’s site went live last Wednesday, as wild weather hit parts of the country.
On Sunday afternoon, parts of the state’s south-east were lashed by a severe thunderstorm, strong winds and damaging hailstones.
The storm has since been labelled a “significant event” by the Insurance Council of Australia, with more than 11,000 claims made. (ABC News: Molly Slattery)
Some residents criticised BOM’s new site and the accessibility of information during that storm, which has since been declared a “significant event” by the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) after 11,000 insurance claims were lodged.
BOM said the redesign of its site, which attracted 2.6 million views on the day of its launch alone, had been intended to make weather information clearer and easier to access.
David Crisafulli said in state parliament the changes to BOM’s site were “not good enough”. (ABC News: Jono Searle)
Speaking in state parliament on Tuesday, Mr Crisafulli said Queenslanders could only prepare for severe weather events, like Sunday’s storm, if they had information available to them.
Mr Crisafulli said the changes were “not good enough” and did not “make sense”.
“The website is flawed. Easy access to individual radars have been removed,”
he said.
“The colour scheme we’ve become accustomed to has changed, and platitudes from Canberra won’t cut it with Queenslanders.”
A lightning strike on Brisbane on Sunday afternoon. (Supplied: Gwyn Morris)
‘Lives at risk’
The state’s energy minister went further, writing to federal Environment Minister Murray Watt to ask him to reconsider changes to the site.
Speaking in parliament, David Janetzki described the decision to send the site live last week as, at best, “short-sighted”, and at worst, one which put “the lives and safety of Queenslanders at risk”.
He highlighted “critical flaws” with the federally-run platform, which he said had changed for “the worst”.
BOM has defended its new-look site. (ABC News: Daniel Miles)
“Caboolture, a growing area of the south-east corner, has disappeared as a locator on the BOM map,” he told the house.
“The strength and associated colour coding of the storms that Queenslanders relied on through thick and thin has significantly changed for the worse.”
Mr Janetzki said he had asked the federal government to consider the ongoing impact of the changes to the website on Queenslanders and had asked it to consider options to improve the accessibility of information at the “critical time” as Queensland entered summer.
A screenshot of the new BOM website. (Supplied: Bureau of Meteorology)
BOM defends site
BOM on Monday defended its new site amid harsh public criticism, while acknowledging it had been difficult to navigate.
Meteorologist Michael Logan told ABC Statewide Drive Victoria the website had needed updating to improve IT systems, and a decision was made to refresh the look of the site at the same time.
“The old website served us really well, but it had been well over a decade since there has been any upgrades to it,” he said.
The website redesign cost $4 million and was part of a broader system of upgrades to transform the BOM’s technology and make it more secure and stable.
A screenshot of the old Bureau of Meteorology website. (Supplied: Bureau of Meteorology)
Storm impacts continue
About 5,500 households across south-east Queensland remained without power on Tuesday afternoon.
Energex said on Monday that getting power back on had been difficult due to the extreme heat and winds experienced throughout the day.
The ICA on Tuesday declared the storm as a “significant event” due to the number of claims received by insurers.
In a statement, the ICA said it could be escalated to an “insurance catastrophe” if claim numbers continued to increase or the impacts were felt across a broader geographical region.
It has urged people to be on their guard against “disaster chasers” who seek to profit from home owner’s insurance claims by pressuring people to sign contracts for repair works, while promising their insurer will pay.
The storm hit quickly on Sunday afternoon. (Supplied: Chrissy Lim )