Cool nights plus cool gadgets

It was another fresh night and morning with temps dropping to 8.6°C degrees at Coolangatta (at 12:00AM midnight), with the Gold Coast Seaway slightly warmer at 12.7°C degrees (at 6:30am).

Light rain & thunder to end the week

Up to 15-25mm of rain may fall around the Gold Coast in the morning tomorrow, Friday 21st May 2010, then tending towards showers in the afternoon/evening with possible thunder.

Coldest morning so far for 2010

Temperatures dropped to 10 degrees Celsius on the Gold Coast overnight at Coolangatta, and 12.5 degrees at the Gold Coast Seaway, breaking the lowest 'official' temperature record for this year (so far!).

The coldest temperature ever recorded for May was 1.5 degrees at Coolangatta in 2000, and 6.5 degrees at the Gold Coast Seaway in 2004 (Source: Weatherzone). Residents further west towards the Hinterland are likely to have already experienced lower temperatures.

Daytime temperatures are set to be 24 degrees over the next three days, with a fine forecast for today (Friday) and mostly sunny over the weekend. Looking further into next week and rain is forecast to develop on Monday.

Evacuation centre locations revealed

The location of the Gold Coast's 96 evacuation centres has been made public by the Gold Coast Bulletin after Gold Coast City Council received $110,000 from the State and Federal governments' Natural Disaster Resilience Program this week.

The news article published on 8th May, quoted Local Disaster Management Group (LDMG) deputy chairman Ted Shepherd :

"... the council would now extend its emergency plan and print booklets, which would include evacuation points."

"We had a generic evacuation plan done for the LDMG ... for in-house disaster management," said Cr Shepherd.

"This will allow us to extend that with more definitive details and we can put it in a nice document and get it out to residents." (Source: Gold coast Bulletin)

The article also states Councillor Dawn Chrichlow saying the full list of centres "should have revealed the centres as soon as they were planned" and that apparently the Councillors were not aware of the centres until they were request by the Gold Coast Bulletin.

The council had previously refused to disclose the 96 planned safe havens, (and) at the time, Mayor Ron Clarke said letting people know where to flee before a bushfire, tsunami or flood would be an information overload that may lead to residents flocking to the danger zone. (Source: Gold Coast Bulletin)

The list, which would have likely already been available to the Council's disaster management unit as lists of potential venues that could be used as evacuation centres, but their suitability and safety would be determined by experts before opening them to the public.

From a disaster management perspective, it wouldn't be prudent to list all of the evacuation centres as "safe havens" as done so within this news article. Residents may assume that during a disaster event, that any centre would be safe, staffed and equipped to deal with them at any time.

Cr Shepherd said the list featured possible evacuation points but they would change depending on the nature of the disaster.

"It will list the evacuation points -- not the routes," he said. (Council) has decided residents could use common sense when viewing the list. (Source: Gold Coast Bulletin)

The list of possible centres/locations as documented by the article is included below:


Clubs

• Ashmore Police Citizens Youth Club
• Band Shell
• Beenleigh Police Citizens Youth Club
• Coomera School of Arts
• McKenzie Park Community Bowls Club
• Southport Soccer Club
• Tugun Surf Life Saving Club Inc
• Twin Towns Police Citizens Youth Club

Community Centres

• Albert Waterways Community Centre
• Beenleigh Community Centre
• Beenleigh Senior Citizens Centre
• Bert Swift Community Centre
• Bethania Community Centre
• Burleigh Heads - Miami Senior Citizens Centre
• Burleigh Waters Community Centre
• Carrara Sports Complex
• Coolangatta Senior Citizens Centre
• Eagleby Community Centre
• Elanora Community Centre
• Gilston Community Centre
• Helensvale Community Centre
• Jacobs Well Community Centre
• Kerrydale Community Centre
• Labrador Memorial Senior Citizens Centre
• Marg Shipman Community Centre
• Mermaid / Broadbeach Senior Citizens Centre
• Mermaid Beach Community Centre
• Nerang Bicentennial Community Centre
• Nerang Community Centre
• Nerang Senior Citizens Centre
• Numinbah Valley School Of Arts Hall
• Palm Beach Neighbourhood Centre
• Palm Beach Share'n'Care Centre Inc
• Paradise Point Community Centre
• Parkwood/Arundel Community Centre
• Pimpama School of Arts
• Pizzey Park Sports Centre
• Robina Common Sporting Centre
• Robina Community Centre
• Runaway Bay Community Centre
• Seventh Day Adventists Comunity Centre
• Silver Bridle Community Centre
• Southport Community Centre
• St Josephs Community Centre
• Stephens Community Centre
• Studio Village Community Centre
• Tallebudgera Valley Community Hall
• Tugun Community Centre
• Tweed Civic Centre
• Yawalpah Community Centre

Churches

• Anglican Parish of Surfers Paradise
• Christian City Church Currumbin
• Lutheran Church
• St Pauls Church Hall
• Trinity Luthern Hall
• Uniting Church
• Uniting Church Hall Robina
• Uniting Church Hall/Day Care Centre
• Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints

General Halls

• Arts Centre
• Banksia Park Hall
• Cedar Creek Hall
• Coomera QCWA Memorial Hall
• CWA Hall - Coolangatta
• CWA Hall - Southport
• CWA Hall - Mermaid Beach
• Eagleby Community Hall
• GC & Albert Museum
• GC Little Theatre
• GC Youth Orchestra Centre
• Masonic Hall
• Miami Great Hall
• Mt Nimell Hall
• Mudgeeraba Memorial Hall
• Mudgeeraba Show Pavilion
• Past Time Hall
• Red Cross Hall
• Spotlight Theatrical Company
• Springbrook Hall
• St Josephs Community Hall
• Tugun Progress Hall
• Woongoolba Hall

Meeting Rooms

• Allamanda Private Hospital
• Old Elanora Library

Schools

• Labrador Kindergarten

Sporting Clubs

• Beenleigh Showgrounds
• Dauth Park Sporting Complex
• Gold Coast International Athletics Center
• Labrador Australian Rules Football Club Ltd
• Runaway Bay Indoor Stadium

Welfare groups

• Central Gold Coast Meals on Wheels Senior Citizens
• Frendship Drop-in Centre
• Nerang Meals on Wheels
• Southport Meals On Wheels Senior Citizens Centre
• St Johns Drop In Centre
• Surfers Paradise Anglican Crisis Care

Regardless of the centres listed above, during a disaster or emergency event, always follow the advise of emergency services as to when and where to evacuate to.

Gold Coast gets drenched

Coast residents were woken around 4am this morning by heavy rain and gusty winds, with more than 150mm of rain has fallen over the coast since last night.

The Tallebudgera Valley received the most with over 170mm falling between midnight to 9am (recorded at Coplicks Bridge). Other 24 hour figures to 9am today also include 137mm at Southport, 127mm at Miami and 128mm at Biggera Ck Dam.

Since midnight, 137.5mm of rain has fallen at the Gold Coast seaway with the heaviest falls between 3:30am and 5:30am this morning, along with gusty winds of up to 46km/h wind gust at 4am. (Source: BOM)

There was minor flooding in the Mudgeeraba Creek recorded at 10:28am by the flood monitoring station, with water levels topping 3 metres at 12:24pm (see right).

The deluge caused flooding of most low-lying roads, including Somerset Drive, Hardy's Road and Highfield Drive went under around 40cm of water. (Source: Nine Gold Coast News).

Most of the rain and heaviest falls have now passed, with showers predicted for the remainder of tonight and tomorrow, before a possible afternoon storm.

Do you have any photos or stories? Let us know via Twitter @weathergc or email us weathergc (at) gmail.com.

Wet working week until Wednesday

Up to 25mm of rain may fall around the Gold Coast early Tuesday before tending to showers, then isolated afternoon storms are forecast for Wednesday afternoon.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology forecasts, showers along the east coast will increase to rain areas about the south-east
corner early Tuesday.

The rainfall forecast images (left) shows falls of between 15-25mm are expected to fall over the Gold Coast region on Tuesday.

Wednesday will see showers and isolated afternoon/evening thunderstorms developing before a trough moving eastwards off the southern Queensland coast overnight.

However Thursday and the remainder of the working week should see clear skies and fine weather with tops around 24-25 degrees.