Be prepared for an emergency
Learn how to prepare for a flood, storm, cyclone, heatwave and bushfire. Make an emergency plan for your home or business.
Living in Brisbane means you need to be ready for unexpected weather and possible emergencies.
Intense storms can strike quickly during storm season, causing flooding and damage. Dry conditions can make vegetation prone to bushfires.
Being prepared for an emergency helps you to act swiftly if the weather turns bad or a natural disaster happens — and recover faster. Careful preparation keeps you, your home and your business safe.
How to prepare for an emergency
The best time to prepare your home or business for an emergency or natural disaster is outside of the storm and bushfire seasons.
Local government and emergency services will respond during a disaster, but your safety is your responsibility. Being prepared will help you respond to an emergency.
Follow the steps to prepare for an emergency so you know what to do before a flood, storm, cyclone, bushfire or heatwave strikes.
Everyone’s level of risk is different. Understand the likelihood of flooding, storms or a bushfire affecting your property and ensure you know where to find the latest alerts and information.
Stay infomed with Brisbane Severe Weather Alert
Register with the Brisbane Severe Weather Alert Service to receive free alerts for severe thunderstorms, destructive winds, cyclones, flooding and planned burns.
Alerts support 6 languages and can be sent by SMS, email or phone.
Include enough supplies for everyone in your home or business. Don’t forget your pet’s needs and supplies.
Outline how your household or business will respond to an emergency. This helps everyone understand what they need to do in a disaster.
Make sure to rehearse your emergency plan regularly.
Follow our tips on preparing your home or business to reduce the impact of a storm, cyclone, bushfire or flood.
Other ways to prepare
Find more information and resources to help you prepare for emergencies and severe weather.
- Watch our Be prepared videos on YouTube.
- Listen to ABC Radio Brisbane (612 AM) and follow Council's Facebook or X page during severe weather.
- Check emergency alerts, road closures, power outages and service disruptions on our emergency dashboard.
- Explore our disaster preparedness and resilience resources for fact sheets and guides.
Discover our VR experience
Step into our 360° virtual reality experience and put your disaster preparedness to the test. Explore real-life scenarios to learn what to do before an event.
Build a sandbag wall, pack your emergency kit and practise your evacuation plan to help keep you and your household safe.
Pack your emergency kit
An emergency kit has the essential supplies you need when a flood, storm, cyclone, bushfire or heatwave forces you to:
- evacuate in a hurry
- manage with no electricity or water
- stay indoors when it’s unsafe to leave the property.
Everyone’s emergency kit will look different, so think about your situation and pack what's right for you.
Items to pack include
Make an emergency plan
An emergency plan helps everyone know what to do in a disaster.
Review and rehearse your plan regularly. Practising ensures everyone understands their role in an emergency. It can also identify potential issues, such as obstacles in an evacuation route.
Your plan should include:
- household or business contact details
- contact information for family and friends
- evacuation routes that consider potential hazards such as flash flooding
- instructions for how to turn off utilities such as power, gas, solar and water
- meeting places in case you need to evacuate
- personal medical information
- your household roles during each potential emergency.
Help with preparing an emergency plan
Watch our video on how to make an emergency plan and visit Get Ready Queensland to make your emergency plan today.
To create a bushfire survival plan, visit the Queensland Fire Department website.
Plans for people with special needs
Personal emergency preparedness and planning is key to knowing what you will do to protect yourself, your family and your animals in a natural disaster such as a flood or bushfire. This is particularly important if you or someone you live with or care for is living with a disability, as you may need more time, additional resources, and support.
A range of tools and resources have been developed in partnership with the Queenslanders with Disability Network, Queensland Government, the University of Sydney and the Community Services Industry Australia. These tools are for people with a disability, service providers working with people with a disability and emergency service organisations for use in developing a personal emergency preparedness plan.
It is important for people with a disability, or people who live with or care for a person with a disability to:
- identify your strengths and support needs in everyday life
- know your level of emergency preparedness and learn about your disaster risk
- plan for how you will manage your support needs in an emergency
- communicate your plan to the people in your support network and address gaps through collaboration.
If you want to discuss a Person-Centred Emergency Plan (P-CEP) with a person with a disability who is developing their own emergency plan, view How to be a person-centred conversation partner at every step of the P-CEP.
Further emergency plan resources for people with disability and seniors are also available from Queenslanders with Disability Network and Australian Red Cross.
Aged care facilities should have business continuity plans to address both sheltering in place and offsite evacuation.
Evacuation of these facilities can be complex and evacuation centres are unlikely to meet the needs of the elderly regarding transport, bedding, high-need care and catering.
Emergency services cannot guarantee that they will have enough resources to assist in an evacuation. Aged care providers are discouraged from relying on emergency services as their primary evacuation solution.
Often, the best option is to have arrangements with other providers in the aged care industry to share resources and support.
Business continuity planning resources are available for Residential Aged Care Providers.
For more information, refer to the Residential Aged Care – Planning Resource publication on the Queensland Government website.
How to prepare your home
Preparing your home can reduce the impact of a storm, cyclone, bushfire or flood.
Severe storms, floods and cyclones
- Regularly trim trees, branches and mow your grass. Garden waste can be disposed of in your green bin or taken to our resource recovery centres.
- Check and maintain your roof, gutters and downpipes.
- Identify where and how to turn off your gas, electricity, solar power and water supply.
- Repair any broken seals or gaps around windows and door frames.
- If renting, inform your landlord or property manager of any maintenance issues that require attention.
Bushfire
- Mow your grass regularly.
- Clear space around buildings.
- Fill in any gaps around windows, door frames and eaves.
- Protect larger under-deck areas with non-flammable screens.
- Keep your yard tidy by cleaning up bark, leaves and twigs.
- Check and maintain firefighting pumps, generators and water systems.
- Make sure your property has clear access for fire trucks.
The Queensland Fire Department has more information on making sure your property is prepared for bushfire.
You can also learn how to protect yourself and your family from the impacts of smoke.
Severe storms, floods and cyclones
- Secure or remove any loose objects from your yard, deck or balcony. This may include outdoor furniture, children’s play equipment, tools, kerbside rubbish bins, barbecues.
- Tie down sheds or other small structures not permanently fixed.
- Store or tie down caravans and boats.
- Fuel your car and park it undercover, away from trees, powerlines and waterways or cover it with tied tarpaulins/blankets.
- Identify which room is the strongest part of your house. This is where you would shelter in the event of a severe storm or cyclone. This is usually the bathroom, toilet or hallway.
- Unplug all electrical items and turn off electricity and gas main supplies if instructed by authorities.
- Dispose of household hazardous waste.
- If flooding is likely, ensure valuables are stored up high.
Bushfire
- Regularly trim trees and branches around your home.
- Keep your yard tidy by cleaning up bark, leaves and twigs.
- Keep all rubbish, leaf litter, fuel containers and fuel away from the house.
- Make sure your property has clear access for fire trucks.
- Clear and remove undergrowth near buildings.
- Dispose of household hazardous waste.
- Make sure you know what your property is protected for.
- Check that your policies are up to date.
Severe weather events can be unsettling for animals.
Pack an emergency kit with your pet in mind to look after them during an emergency.
Include the following essentials in the kit.
There are more ways you can be prepared and plan ahead for your pets.
- Check your fences are intact so they can’t escape.
- Make sure they have a safe area with enough shelter and bedding.
- Make plans with a friend, family member or neighbour who they could go to if needed.
Find more tips and checklists to protect your pet at Get Ready Queensland.
Download the guide for more information on how to prepare your home for flooding.
Prepare your business
Plan ahead to reduce the impact of a flood, storm, cyclone or bushfire on your business.
Follow these tips and adapt them to suit your business.
- Identify potential risks, including bushfire or flooding.
- Pack an emergency kit.
- Make an emergency plan so everyone knows what to do in an emergency.
- Create a business continuity plan and update it regularly.
- Assign tasks for staff to carry out before, during and after an emergency or natural disaster.
- Develop an evacuation plan and rehearse it regularly.
- Circulate a list of emergency contact numbers, including staff contacts.
- Organise training in evacuation and first aid procedures for your staff.
- Keep enough stock on hand to supply your business and customers after an emergency or natural disaster.
- Identify any vehicles and equipment that may need relocation or protection during an emergency.
- Ensure you have spare parts on site to keep equipment operational after an emergency or natural disaster.
- Obtain a generator and fuel, if needed, to maintain your business during a power outage.
- Establish reciprocal help arrangements with similar businesses to provide support during and after an emergency.
A business continuity plan details what your business will do before, during and after an emergency.
A continuity plan helps you:
- identify, prevent and reduce risks
- prepare for risks you can’t control
- respond and recover in a crisis.
Use the Queensland Government business continuity plan template to:
- identify what documents are critical to your business
- develop an incident response plan for your workplace
- review and improve your data security and backup arrangements.
- Make sure that your insurance covers your business in the event of an emergency or natural disaster.
- Check with your insurance company whether there are any specific preparations you need to make for extreme weather.
- Regularly review and update your insurance, especially when your business grows or changes.
- Trim overhanging branches.
- Secure or remove loose items outside your property.
- Check and maintain your roof, gutters and downpipes.
- If applicable, create a wide firebreak around your building(s).
Get more information on natural disaster support for your business.
Download the guide for more information on how to prepare your business for flooding.
Find more information about disaster preparedness for business at Get Ready Queensland.
There are specific guidelines for the commercial animal industry. Use these to develop or update your disaster management plans.
Download the animal disaster management guidelines for advice on:
- when and where you should evacuate your animals
- what to consider if you have to temporarily close your business.
Sandbags
Sandbags can reduce the impact of flooding on your property when used correctly.
Learn how to collect, store and use sandbags, before including them in your emergency plans.
Where to collect sandbags
During storm season
During storm season (October to March), pre-filled sandbags are available for collection 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from:
- Darra - South Depot, 38 Shamrock Road
- Lota - Depot, 58 Herbert Street
- Morningside - Balmoral Depot, 9 Redfern Street
- Newmarket - SES Depot, 66 Wilston Road
- Zillmere - North Depot, 33 Jennings Street.
Outside storm season
Outside storm season (April to September), pre-filled sandbags will not be available, unless there is a significant severe weather event forecasted by the Bureau of Meteorology.
If a significant severe weather event is forecasted outside storm season, pre-filled sandbags will be available for collection from the locations listed above.
Additional collection locations
Additional self-serve sandbag locations will be established across the city during significant severe weather events. Council will provide information about additional collection points as required.
How to store sandbags
Store sandbags in a cool area out of direct sunlight and protected from the elements.
When stored correctly, sandbags can last up to 12 months before use.
Tips for using sandbags
Place sandbags in front of doorways, roller doors and drainage holes.
- Put plastic sheeting down, then lay sandbags on top.
- Lay sandbags against a structure to stop them moving.
- Lay sandbags with the long edges facing the flow of water.
- Stagger the rows of sandbags so the joins don’t line up.
Disposing of sandbags
Council encourages proper disposal of sandbags once severe weather has passed.
- Don’t put sand or full sandbags in any household bins (red, green or yellow).
- Spread unused sand from sandbags on your garden or lawn and keep empty bags for reuse or put them in your red bin.
- Sandbags that have been in contact with storm water, oil or other contaminants, or sandbags that are no longer required, can be disposed of at resource recovery centres (general waste fees apply).
- If you can’t dispose of sandbags yourself, ask family, friends, community groups, or a support agency for help.
Frequently asked questions
Before a storm hits:
- trim tree branches well clear of your property
- check and clean your roof, gutters and downpipes
- remove or secure any loose objects in your yard or on your deck or balcony.
As a storm approaches:
- make sure you have your mobile phone close by and fully charged
- park your vehicle undercover or cover it with tarpaulins or blankets
- disconnect electrical devices
- listen to local radio stations for information
- shelter and secure your pets and animals, but do not tie up pets outside.
We have a range of tools and resources to help you check your risk of a flood, bushfire or severe weather.
Use our Flood Awareness Map and learn about bushfire to check your risk.
You can use our free tips and resources to prepare your business for a flood, bushfire or severe storm.
Business Queensland also has resources available for:
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