Anika Wells MP on 4BC with Scott Emerson

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
4BC SPECIAL COVERAGE OF SEQ FLOODS
SUNDAY, 27 FEBRUARY 2022
 
SUBJECT: South-East Queensland Floods.
                                                          
SCOTT EMERSON, HOST: Anika Wells, the Federal Member for Lilley is a regularl on my show on 4BC Drive, but we’ve got her here on our special 4BC live coverage of the flooding crisis. Anika, what do you been seeing out there all day?
 
ANIKA WELLS, MEMBER FOR LILLEY:  Well, good evening, Scott and to your listeners. I think today we saw a lot of people who don't usually experience flooding, experience the deluge. I was at the sandbag depot in Zillmere yesterday, and a lot of people that were coming through were the ones that live near, you know, creek catchments and say, ‘yes, we always get a bit of it in the backyard during heavy deluge.’ But today, I was there at first light and the people coming through from sunrise onwards were the ones who woke up with water at their back doors. And unfortunately, that situation has only deteriorated across the day where I think like you've been saying, the forecast was that the extreme rain would move on by this afternoon. And actually, it just remained stationary, virtually stationary, dropping really significant falls across the entire city.
 
EMERSON: Look, it's been extraordinary. And as we heard from the Lord Mayor a little bit earlier, this is not ’74, this is not 2011. This is specifically 2022. I mean, you go back 10 years ago, during the height of the flood levels in 2011. It was sunny days out there, if you recall Anika exactly the opposite of what we're getting today with this rain just belting down constantly. As you say, you were up very early this morning Anika Wells, I’m talking to the MP for Lilley here. During the course of the day, did you see it deteriorate in particular areas and streets in your electorate?
 
WELLS: I did, because I ended up directing traffic in and out of Jennings Street Zillmere because council was so short staffed, they had no one to deploy to do traffic control. The wait for sandbags got up to 2-2.5 hours at points across the day. So, each time people would wind down their windows and I would tell them, you know, I’d give them the bad news that there was a big delay to get their sandbag, but I’d ask them which street and suburbs they were coming from. So, I was getting a really good ready reckoner of what suburbs were going under and when.
 
EMERSON: So, Anika Wells, you were doing that you were doing the traffic flow there. Did they really…when they wound down their window, did they suddenly realise their local member, you're suddenly the person directing their traffic?
 
WELLS: Yeah, some did. Councillor Jared Cassidy was there as well. And we had a high vis vest just because of our normal line of work. Happily, I had a name badge in my car, which I threw on just to give a better, you know, legitimacy to the traffic direction. A lot of people said ‘oh, I recognise your face’ or ‘oh, it's good to meet you, sorry about the circumstances!’ But obviously, you know, no one wanted to hang around having a chat. They wanted their sandbags, and they wanted to stop, you know, the water coming in their laundry or what have you. But I think by this afternoon, at three o'clock, you know, when those severe storm cell started rolling from the north through, basically where you were at 3pm is where you stayed. That Jennings Street depot is currently cut off, it got cut off about half past three this afternoon. We can't get in or out. So, Councillor Cassidy is actually still there, as are a number of volunteers who were helping him, and council workers and the people of Deagon, Shorncliffe, Sandgate and Brighton are currently cut off with no way in and out of the peninsula. So unfortunately, it doesn't look like the rains are abaiting overnight. So as much as we all want to get in and help, and I know like I've been lots of people have been writing into my social saying, ‘how can I help?’ We've just got to sit tight until we get through the worst of it.
 
EMERSON: Is there a sense in the community that things are deteriorating? You just talked about the weather overnight, and we have heard mixed reports about that. And there are hopes, of course that it might ease going into tomorrow. But look, we've been fooled plenty of times by this weather event over the last 24 or 48 hours. What is the spirit of the community like at the moment? Is there a sense we'll get through it or we just don't know what is coming around the corner?
 
WELLS: I think we know we'll get through it because we have the Mud Army from 2011 and people stand ready to help. [Cut out]. Particularly this afternoon, we have people who have never had that kind of impact to their houses who were suddenly under a metre, or their street was under a metre of water. I think it’s that shock and lack of preparedness from those areas that we have to, in addition to the usual places that go under and have flood mitigation from the legacy 2011, 2013, 2105 floods. I went to the Kedron-Wavell evacuation centre once it opened this afternoon, and the people that were coming through just looked shell shocked, you know, the police cars were pulling in and they were in the backseat and hopping out and were saying ‘is this is this where we go, I've never had to do this before?’ And I know that centre is nearly full tonight as we speak. So, I think there's a lot of people that will be less, shall we call it, experienced hands at Brisbane floods, who will be needing our help tomorrow.
 
EMERSON:  No look, hopefully we will get through it as you say and it's funny you mentioned the Mud Army there. It is reassuring, knowing what happened in 2011, the devastation there, we got through here in Brisbane, we've got the Mud Army there to help us out. We know the community will rally around as well. Anika Wells, thanks for being on our special 4BC live emergency coverage of the flooding crisis.
 
WELLS: Not at all, thanks to you and Luke and all the team who are beavering away at Cannon Hill making sure that we can all keep across what's happening across the coming hours. So, thanks to you.
 
EMERSON: Thank you Anika Wells.
 
ENDS