Cyclone Yasi – Service Plans

At a recent QPS presentation, we were informed that, Cyclone Yasi on the current forecast, will cause the Burdekin to experience conditions similar to a Cyclone Category 2. Please take note of this and adjust your personal planning accordingly.

At the meeting of the Centre Team and Team Leaders just concluded, the following plans have been put in place.
* Service Users. All service users and or their families have been contacted and have their own plans in place.
* Staff. We have some staff who are self evacuating, and we are assisting some of those with accommodation.
* As of end of the Junior Friendship programs today the organisation will be closed until a re-assessment on Sunday evening.
* Providing it is safe to do so, we expect to recommence service delivery on Monday morning. CHECK with on-call FIRST!
* All vehicles will be re-located to safe premises this afternoon.

NEXT ROSTERS and PAYS
Because of the likelihood of disruptions to power and services we will be processing pays early.
* Please bring your time sheet into the office immediately.
* It is our intention to pay everybody, in advance, within the next 24 hours.
PLEASE NOTE:
* You may be over paid – you may be underpaid.
* YOU ACCEPT THAT IN EITHER CASE, FLEXI WILL ADJUST YOUR PAYS in the next pay period.
* We will discuss any adjustments with you BEFORE they happen.

WHILE WE ARE SHUT FOR BUSINESS
All Permanent Staff, who are not working because the agency had closed temporarily, will be paid as usual.
Casual Staff are not paid for lost shifts – sorry!

WHEN WE ARE OPEN FOR BUSINESS
Any Permanent Staff who, because of flooding or weather conditions, cannot get into carry out their normal duties, will be asked if they want to use their holiday or personal leave which has accrued – or if they want leave without pay.

WEEK COMMENCING 7th FEBRUARY
I will contact members of the Centre Team and Team Leaders on Sunday afternoon, and we will make the decision about service delivery for Monday 7th February. If we do reopen on Monday, then I expect that the Organisational Planning Day will go ahead. All plans are: weather, roads and rain permitting!

Be safe in your world.
Brenda-Anne

Steady as she goes – watching Cyclone Yasi

Good morning
Heavy grey clouds are building up now and the breeze is picking up. The water table and all the creeks and marshlands are already saturated so it is no wonder that the Burdekin Council has issued information asking residents to be aware of the potential for flooding and provided storm surge information for Ayr and Brandon .

The Burdekin Council has also issued an Public Notice as well as some information on-line. Please also note the link to the Burdekin Shire Council on the right hand side of this page.

PLEASE NOTE:
ALL DIRECT SERVICE DELIVERY is CANCELLED from tomorrow (Wednesday) for the rest of the week.

We have been running normal services to-day and a meeting at noon will tie up any last-minute arrangements. We have a number of staff who are self evacuating, however all the arrangements for our service users have been made. All the work that can be done around our properties has been done, we have safe places for all our cars, we have food and water.
Now all we can do is – with the rest of Queensland – wait to see what YASI is going to do.

Because the forecasts are suggesting that as much as 1m of rain could be expected – we need to wait until the weekend to see what has eventuated. As soon as it is safe to return to normal services – we will do so.

Decisions regarding recommencement and communication of these decisions will be made by phone, SMS, on our Facebook site as well as this website.

The Board of Flexi sends its thanks to all the Team who have performed so admirably under difficult circumstances. Two cyclones to deal with in one week is an enormous challenge for anyone – and you have all just mucked in and got things done! we are really proud of you all.

Be safe in your world!
Brenda-Anne

US Navy tracking for TC Yasi

Cyclone YASI - forecast model Monday Afternoon

Update on Cyclone Anthony

The Bureau cyclone threat map Advice #14 suggests Cyclone Anthony will cross around Ayr and Proserpine.

Cyclones are able to turn direction very quickly (just check the wandering way this cyclone took to get to us over the past week!) so please keep alert to any changes that may occur over the next few hours – listen into the ABC local, TV or internet updates.

Remember, we will only return to normal rostered duties when we are sure it will be safe for everybody. Please check with the office tomorrow morning. Any difficulties with getting to work – or other problems, please phone the on call mobile number.

Take care.

Brenda-Anne

Urgent Notice

The latest Bureau of Meterology report Number 11 issued at 11am this morning indicated that Cyclone Anthony is likely to cross the Queensland coast between AYR and Bowen within the next 24 hours, sometime overnight. The prediction is that there will be destructive and.or damaging winds during this time.

A decision has been made to cancel all service delivery arrangement requiring travel – we do not want our people on the roads in dangerous conditions.

All Team members need to contact the  afterhours coordinator for instructions or the team tomorrow morning after 9am. Flexi 1 and 2 rosters will remain the same – if you cannot get into Ayr for your shift – contact the on-call mobile in plenty of time for us to get a replacement.

If you have any concerns – check out the Burdekin Cyclone Info site here or call me or the on call number.

Cyclone Warning

Ok, we are now into the pointy end of the preparation stage. We don’t want to panic folk – but we have involved everyone in the outside cleanup. Tonight we will make sure that we watch the news and discuss what we might experience so that no-one is unduly frightened.

We have already called around to see if any of our house mates wanted to be with family over the next day or so – and we have also checked to see if anyone who lives independently wants to come over for a night or two to sleep over! That is such FUN!

The wind is really picking up as I write this and the latest Bureau of Meteorology tells me that the track of the cyclone is to cross about 30 kilometers away north of us  – so we should get a really good blow and lots of rain. I know that when we bought the houses we really looked at them for their cyclone sturdiness – and one has a brand new roof – so I am quite confident that all will be well.

I have had a chat to all the team – including the on call  – gosh! they are a great bunch to work with: extra food – including midnight snacks,  the medications, medical notes, emergency clothing are all packed with the evacuation kits AND the cars are already fueled up. They all have the emergency numbers including my cell phone and home number – just in case! What a Team!

I even have an onsite cyclone photographer organised – Karen has volunteered – so I will pop her ‘Cyclone Updates’ on line! She is thrilled!

OK, Cyclone Anthony, we are ready!

Hong Kong and the Aussie Hope Project.

Today we got the Children’s Team around the computer and had a great Skype teleconference with our friends at the University of Hong Kong. We finished an hours work with a full plan to move ahead on the Hope Project. This research project is to help young people to learn to what hope is and to help them develop resilience.

Later this year we will be recruiting schools to support us in asking students to contribute stories in a story writing competition with a specific structure – a focus on hope. We will also be asking local north Queensland writers to take part and write their stories. From all those – perhaps 20 entries, we will choose as winners and whose work we will publish.

Then we need to recruit a team of Social Workers and Psychologists to help us with the next steps…..

The last step of this project is to recruit parents and their children to see if we can, in fact, teach children what Hope is. Exciting huh?

HELP!! We do need a Mandarin speaker to help translate the manual  – know anyone?? Want to get involved??? Call us!

Enjoy your world!

Wow!! Getting ready for the Cyclone!

Well – yet again we gear up to meet the possibility of a cyclone – this time the likelihood is that it will be a big one – and cross land near us so it is all hands on deck tomorrow to make sure we are ready.

It is a challenge for a disability organisation to work out contingency plans for a potentially large cyclone. All our houses have their Emergency Kits and Evacuation Kits and their Disaster Plans .

We have a drill each year before the Cyclone Season – so we have the Cyclone Tracking maps. A number of our service users will leave their Flexi Accommodation and spend the time with their families. We let everyone know what the warning sound is like – you don’t forget that in a hurry!

I still have a couple of pages on this website I want to do before any excitements  -  like Cyclones. I am especially keen to showcase the exciting project we are doing with the University of Hong Kong on Hope.

Enjoy your world!

A wonderful example of determination -

Hello world!

Welcome 2011 and the Burdekin Flexible Support Service Blog.

This is more than a blog – we want our friends, fans, families and fun times to be accessible to everyone. You will find lots of information and links to the organisation and to what we are doing from day-to-day.

We will also link to other organisations, blogs and websites you might find useful and helpful. This will include information on nutrition, augmentive communication devices, support for the visual and hearing impaired, as well as chat groups and peer support links.  If you come across something that might be of interest – let us know!

Not only that – but we invite comments and ideas from everyone and – apart from stuff which is inappropriate – we will enjoy sharing all the ideas that posted.

Almost all the training we offer is open to members of the public, parents, service users, people interested in the work we do, prospective employees – anyone – just call us and let us know you are interested.

Brenda-Anne Parfitt, CEO, Burdekin Flexible Support Services

Sometimes things happen really quickly in our world – so we have a Twitter account – to announce anything that is in the NOW!!!  You can find a log of our Tweets on this page – and you can find us at ‘BurdekinFlexi’ on Twitter.

We are keeping our Facebook page for  our fans and you can post news and information to that site too!

So now settle back and explore our site!

Brenda-Anne