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Transcript of Proceedings Issued subject to correction upon revision. THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE C HOLMES, Commissioner MR JAMES O'SULLIVAN AC, Deputy Commissioner MR PHILLIP CUMMINS, Deputy Commissioner MR P CALLAGHAN SC, Counsel Assisting MS E WILSON, Counsel Assisting IN THE MATTER OF THE COMMISSIONS OF INQUIRY ACT 1950 COMMISSIONS OF INQUIRY ORDER (No. 1) 2011 QUEENSLAND FLOODS COMMISSION OF INQUIRY BRISBANE ..DATE 04/10/2011 ..DAY 41 3549 Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry, GPO Box 1738, Brisbane Q 4001 Email: [email protected] 04102011 D41 T1 SBH QUEENSLAND FLOODS COMMISSION OF INQUIRY THE COMMISSION RESUMED AT 10.02 A.M. 1 COMMISSIONER: Yes, Ms Kefford? MS KEFFORD: Madam Commissioner, I call John Alexander McLeod. 10 JOHN ALEXANDER McLEOD, SWORN AND EXAMINED: MS KEFFORD: Is your full name John Alexander McLeod?-- It is. And you're the Safety and Security Manager for the Stamford Plaza hotel?-- That's correct. 20 You've provided a statement to the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry. Can I ask you to have a look at this document, please? Is that a copy of your statement?-- It is. I tender that statement. COMMISSIONER: Exhibit 701. 30 ADMITTED AND MARKED "EXHIBIT 701" MS KEFFORD: Now, could you tell the Commission what your responsibilities and your role are with the Stamford Plaza?-- I'm responsible for the health, safety and security of the hotel guests, the hotel and the staff. And the Stamford Plaza Hotel is located at 39 Edward Street, 40 Brisbane?-- Correct, it is on the corner of Alice and Edward Street. It's a multi-storey luxury hotel built in 1984?-- Correct. And it was built on the site of the old naval offices?-- That's correct. Adjacent to the Brisbane River?-- Correct. 50 Do you know whether the site flooded during the 1974 floods?-- I believe it did. And approximately how far is the hotel from the Brisbane River?-- 10 metres. How does the height of the river generally compare with the height of the hotel buildings?-- Generally it's just XN: MS KEFFORD 3550 WIT: McLEOD J A 60 04102011 D41 T1 SBH QUEENSLAND FLOODS COMMISSION OF INQUIRY underneath the boardwalk, probably it raises about a metre. 1 And in your statement at paragraph 2, you say that the ground floor of the basement is only just above river height. What do you mean by the ground floor of the basement?-- The basement is on two levels. We have a carpark basement and then there's a further basement that drops down a little bit and it's called a loading dock, which is where we receive all our stuff that we need for the hotel. That is just above the river, and the carpark is slightly elevated from the loading 10 dock. And you say in your statement that the basement of the building is used for multiple purposes. Is it used for purposes other than just the car parking?-- Yes, it is. What else is it used for?-- Its offices. All the offices are located down there, all the plant is located down there, your air-conditioning, your boilers, chillers, the laundry, all the equipment, there's an Energex substation down there, staff 20 canteen, all your CCTV footage, your servers. And if I could take you to early 2011 at the time of the floods, in paragraph 3 you say you returned to work from your recreation leave at about midday on Tuesday, the 10th of January. Now, Tuesday, was, in fact, the 11th of January, so was it about midday on the 11th, the Tuesday, that you returned to work?-- That's correct. And why did you return to work at that stage?-- I was called 30 back. They figured the hotel was going to flood. When you arrived, were staff making preparations for the flood?-- They were sandbagging the carpark, and the external doors - they were placing plastic and tape around the external doors. And you tell us at paragraph 3 of your statement that you made some inquiries about possible flood heights. Who did you make the inquiries of?-- I was listening to the radio, plus in our 40 hotel we have the Edward Street metre, the flood metre, where they predict the gauges, and on what they were telling me on the radio compared to what I could see and the metre, I knew we were in trouble. What is - can you explain in a bit more detail what the metre is?-- The metre is the - I believe it is the official metre for the - Edward Street, City. It is a flood metre or water level metre, and it has - the readings go up and down with the tide. Whilst it was very hard to try and make any sense - 50 complete sense out of it, I knew that if it was coming up two metres from where it was at the time that we would be inundated with water. So, as a result of the information you received, you say in your statement that you estimated that the flood would inundate the basement and the sandbagging would be useless; is that right?-- That's correct. XN: MS KEFFORD 3551 WIT: McLEOD J A 60 04102011 D41 T1 SBH QUEENSLAND FLOODS COMMISSION OF INQUIRY 1 What advice did you give to senior managers and staff at that time?-- Evacuate all their stuff in the basement, as much as we could get out. Evacuate in terms of taking-----?-- Taking stock----- -----articles out of the basement or evacuate people?-- At that stage it was evacuate the articles from the basement, your stock, your photocopiers, your computers, your servers 10 and what-not. And did the staff also move the guest cars out of the basement at that time?-- We managed to get them all out, yes. Where did you move the items to?-- To the third and fourth floor of the hotel. In terms of obviously the equipment?-- The equipment. 20 And in terms of the guest cars?-- Guest cars, we had arrangements to put them at different hotels and also some parking bays up on Spring Hill, I believe. You weren't able to move everything out, were you?-- No. What were you unable to move out of the basement?-- We didn't get a lot of - the expensive wine didn't come out, some of the photocopiers and heavier items that required manual handling, sort of special equipment we couldn't get out, a lot of the 30 uniforms, a lot of the tools. Now, still on Tuesday the 11th, later that evening Energex cut the power to its substation?-- That's correct. Did you receive some warning that Energex would take this step before it occurred?-- I received a phone call around 6.20 that evening from someone identifying herself as working for Energex and advising me that they were going to cut the power. I asked when and they said they couldn't tell me at this 40 stage. And where was the water level in relation to the basement at the time you received the phone call from Energex?-- It hadn't quite started to come into the basement just then. At the time that you were told that Energex was going to cut the power, were there guests in the building?-- There were. Approximately how many?-- 200. 50 And were the guests advised that the power would be cut?-- The guests were. The power was, in fact, cut at about 10 past 10 you tell us in your statement, and was a result of that that the lifts in the building couldn't be used?-- That's correct. XN: MS KEFFORD 3552 WIT: McLEOD J A 60 04102011 D41 T1 SBH QUEENSLAND FLOODS COMMISSION OF INQUIRY Were the lifts stationed at one of the higher levels of the 1 building when the power was cut?-- They were. And later in your statement, you mentioned that a generator, which is on the roof of the building, wasn't able to be used during the January 2011 floods. Why was that?-- The generator was designed to generate the whole building. We had no capability of shutting off floors. So, if we enacted - if we engaged the generator, we would have made the basement live with all the water. 10 Have you investigated making modifications to that generator so that floors can be isolated?-- We have, and it's being enacted as we speak. In paragraph 5 of your statement, you address the inundation of the Stamford Plaza building and you say the river overflowed the boardwalk and started to come into the corridor of the loading dock. What was the next part of the building to be flooded?-- Once it got into the loading dock, it then 20 filled up quite quickly and then went into the carpark and then just steadily rose until it got - until later that next morning when it reached its peak, completely flooded the carpark, the loading dock and all our offices. And is the Energex substation in the basement or the - in the carpark level of the basement or the lower loading dock?-- It's in the lower section. You say that the flood rate increased significantly when the 30 high tide arrived. About when was that?-- To be honest, I'd only be guessing in times. The whole thing was very active and it was early in the morning, probably between 2 and 4, I'm guessing. And about what time did you decide to start evacuating guests?-- We had started evacuating guests later that night - earlier that night, but a lot of the guests were business guests.

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