Image
Bremer River - Ipswich
A woman whose brother drowned in January's southeast Queensland's floods has told an inquiry her family is tormented by the circumstances of his death.

Colleen Engel's brother Robert Bromage, 50, died at Karrabin, near Ipswich, on January 11, after his car was washed from a flooded road.

Ms Engel has told the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry that she looks forward to a police investigation into his death providing some answers.

In a victim impact statement read to the inquiry in Ipswich, west of Brisbane, on Friday, Ms Engel said she couldn't imagine her brother driving in floodwaters.

"Did he see it or did he really try to cross?" she wrote.

"The questions just roll on. How long was he in the water?"

Ms Engel said there was 27 hours between Mr Bromage's car being washed off Karrabin Road and being retrieved, but, she was told, his body had not been submerged for that long.

"It is a nightmare for us to think he may have been alive in the car for some time," she wrote.

Mr Bromage was estranged from his son and a daughter, who gave birth to her third child weeks after his death.

His son was about to get in touch again.

One of Mr Bromage's brothers was also hit particularly hard, as he saw the creek every day from his workplace, and operated the crane that was used to retrieve the car.

Ms Engel used her statement to thank the tow truck drivers who tried unsuccessfully to get Mr Bromage's car from the creek sooner, and criticised the local newspaper, the Queensland Times, for reporting on the incident two days before her brother had been formally identified.

The newspaper had obtained his photograph from Facebook, and Ms Engel wants better protocols for media reporting on missing people.

She said she also wanted guardrails and signage on Karrabin Road.

The inquiry has heard the state government was reviewing safety on the road and would consider her recommendations.

The Bremer River peaked at more than 19 metres in Ipswich on January 12, flooding thousands of properties where it meets the Brisbane River.

Much of the hearing in Ipswich focused on how authorities managed to warn and evacuate residents after the Bureau of Meteorology scaled up its flood height prediction from 12.7 metres to 22 metres in a matter of hours on January 11.

The inquiry heard many residents were suffering what's known locally as "Wivenhoe Syndrome" - the belief that Wivenhoe Dam would prevent any repeat of the 1974 flood.

Until her recent retirement, Ms Engel was principal of Redbank State Primary School, where locals hastily set up an unofficial evacuation centre for up to 150 people.

Although they had trouble getting access to food supplies, she backed locals running their own centres.

"Redbank is an island," Ms Engel said.

"We can't have people coming in. We need to look after ourselves."

Ipswich City councillor Paul Tully called for more user-friendly flood warnings, perhaps a category 1-5 system as for cyclones, accompanied by maps to show people what category their home fell into.

The council is taking part in a pilot program of a colour-coded system.