Tasmania State Emergency Service (SES) has recently adopted the Australian Warning System (AWS) for flood emergencies and launched an SES Flood Warnings System which will provide advice to the community regarding what to do when a flood happens.

Like the AWS for other emergencies, the Tasmania SES Flood Warning System consists of three ascending warning levels; Advice (yellow), Watch and Act (orange), and Emergency Warning (red).

The warnings are presented in triangles, with a house in the centre and flood levels underneath.

These warning triangles will be issued with a set of call-to-actions specific to the emergency event.

The SES Flood Warnings will be issued on the new version of TasALERT.com which is the Tasmanian Government’s official emergency warning and information website.

The warnings will also be published on TasALERT and Tasmania SES social media channels and broadcast on ABC Radio.

The Tasmania SES Flood Warning System complements the Flood Warnings and Flood Watches issued by the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM).

Tasmania SES will take the BOM warnings as a key consideration when deciding to issue an SES Flood Warning, as well as other information such as flood modelling, local knowledge, flood history, operational information, and inputs from councils.

“While States and Territories are implementing the AWS at different times subject to their risks and resources, it will be the case in the near future that no matter where it is in the country or what type of emergency is occurring, the message about what to do will be aligned” said Leon Smith, Acting Director, Tasmania SES.

The AWS was adopted by Tasmania for bushfires in September 2021.

Following the adoption for flood emergencies, there are plans to adopt the AWS for storm emergencies from 2023.