The State Emergency Service is calling on Tasmanians to take note of current weather warnings, with damaging (potentially destructive) winds, abnormally high tides, and hazardous driving conditions on the way.
“Today’s damaging winds have mostly eased for now, but please stay vigilant as there is more to come,” said SES Assistant Director Leon Smith.
“We’ve already seen trees down on roads across the state, and we are expecting two more weather events over the next day or so.”
“The next front of damaging winds is expected to hit about midnight Sunday, impacting Tasmania’s coastal and elevated areas until about 7am Monday.”
“Winds are expected to increase again about 3pm Monday, with strong signals for damaging and potentially destructive winds, particularly in western and southern areas.”
“These potentially destructive winds on Monday evening coincide with abnormally high tides, and road conditions are likely to be hazardous, with the potential for sea spray across causeways and other low-lying exposed coastal areas.”
“This is most likely in low lying coastal areas such as South Arm, Lauderdale, the Sorell and Midway Point causeways and similar areas and means those roads could become hazardous to drive on.”
Tasmania Police Acting Inspector Scott Mackenzie said police and other emergency services need people to take note of these warnings, and to act responsibly.
“If wild weather is occurring and you don’t need to travel on our roads, don’t travel.”
“If you do have to be out and about, factor in extra time to allow for delays or road closures, and slow down and drive to the conditions.”
“As well as keeping our community members safe, we need to look after our first responders.”
“The best way of doing that is by preventing them from having to respond to incidents that could have been avoided by adhering to these warnings.”
“You can help us keep everyone safe by making the right choices.”
The State Emergency Service advises that people should:
- Supervise children closely.
- Check that family and neighbours are aware of warnings.
- Manage pets and livestock.
- Secure outdoor items including furniture and play equipment.
- Be prepared in case of power outages and report any outages to TasNetworks on 132 004.
- Beware of damaged trees and power lines and take care when driving.
- For emergency assistance contact the SES on 132 500.
- Stay up to date:
- http://www.bom.gov.au/tas/warnings/ for the latest weather forecast and warnings.
- https://www.alert.tas.gov.au/ for current warnings and advice.
- o https://www.ses.tas.gov.au/ for advice on how to prepare and plan.
- o https://www.police.tas.gov.au/community-alerts/ for road closures.