A report into last summer’s $1.3 billion flood disaster in Victoria has recommended sweeping changes to the way emergency services work together. It has also called for changes to the methods of collecting and distributing rain and flood information.

The Review of 2010/2011 Flood Warnings and Response, undertaken by former police chief commissioner Neil Comrie, delivered a damning verdict on the state’s “fragmented” and “flawed” emergency services.

Mr Comrie identified “similar serious shortcomings in the state’s emergency management arrangements” as were identified by the royal commission into the 2009 Victorian bushfires.

“This situation is not sustainable and requires major reform,” his report says.

“The absence of any overarching policy framework or centralised operational control (except for fire hazards) results in a siloed, unco-ordinated structure that invariably breaks down in the face of a large-scale or protracted emergency.

“The lack of robust policy to facilitate co-ordination, and inadequate command and control arrangements, resulted in an ad hoc response to the floods.”

Agencies responsible for flood mapping and rain measurements, including the Bureau of Meteorology, also cop a serve in the report, along with planning bodies that allow houses and other infrastructure to be built on floodplains.

After more than a decade of drought, heavy rain and floods affected Victoria from September last year until February. More than a third of the state was flooded and 56,791 insurance claims worth $836.1 million have been lodged and assessed.

Mr Comrie says his report makes 93 recommendations which broadly support the major reform program announced in September by the Baillieu Government.

“I have concluded there is a palpable appetite and momentum for reform in Victoria’s emergency management sector,” he said.

Emergency Services Minister Peter Ryan says the Government supports 90 of the recommendations in full, and three – including the call for an emergency services controller – in part.

The Government has also launched a new website run by state roads agency VicRoads to provide up-to-date information about road closures during emergencies.

An Insurance Council of Australia spokesman told insuranceNEWS.com.au that “anything which comes out of the report that improves the ability of emergency services to respond to disasters will be welcome”.

Research published after the last major floods in 1998 indicated that up to 80% of potential flood damage in urban areas could be prevented if people were better warned and knew what to do if there was a flood heading toward them.

However, Mr Comrie’s report concedes that the sheer scale of last summer’s floods meant some waters flowed “in unexpected directions not previously experienced or did not follow known watercourses”.

Some of the blame for that problem was also sheeted home to inadequate flood mapping in some areas of Victoria.

The report suggests the cost of duplicated emergency services could be cut by improved co-ordination and shared administrations – a move Mr Comrie says should eventually “free up funds to invest in improved service delivery to the community”.

“The initial investment required to support some of the reforms detailed in this report should be amortised over time by a significant reduction in the current ongoing financial drain that results from… disparate and duplicated systems, processes and activities.”