Qld evacuation plans inconsistent: review

Queensland's coastal residents could become confused during extreme weather events due to inconsistencies in local council planning, a review into cyclone and storm tide shelters has found.

The report, by Queensland's Emergency Management Inspector-General Iain MacKenzie, examined 13 public cyclone shelters after local governments across Queensland raised concerns about capacity issues.

Mr MacKenzie focused his review on risk, sheltering arrangements and community engagement.

He found community profiling was lacking and inconsistent, which fed into concerns around whether sheltering was adequate.

"We do not know if sheltering arrangements match risk, because risk is not always adequately identified and assessed," the report said.

Some local governments vulnerable to storm tides had not completed risk modelling, while others didn't even have clearly laid out evacuation zones.

"Where risk modelling has been undertaken and evacuation zones mapped, we found examples of inconsistency," the report said.

"This may lead to confusion during evacuations, particularly along local government borders."

The report said many local governments didn't have reliable predictions about public sheltering demand for cyclone and storm tide scenarios.

Staffing of public cyclone shelters was also found to be problematic in most local government areas.

The local councils could benefit from linking up with aged care providers to discuss how to continue their care in such events, the Inspector-General suggested.

The report, which was tabled in parliament on Thursday afternoon, made five recommendations including a full audit of all local government areas vulnerable to storm tide events to identify gaps in evacuation zone planning.

It also called for the development of a state-wide strategy for identifying and engaging vulnerable people in emergencies.