Brisbane City Council says it has addressed 12 recommendations put forward as part of this year's review of February flooding.
Former Queensland Governor Paul de Jersey handed down the results of an investigation into the council's disaster response in May after more than 20,000 Brisbane homes were impacted by floodwaters following three days of severe weather.
Among the recommendations due before a forecast wet spring were improving severe weather alert systems, better coordination of the volunteer "mud army", and more timely movement of the city's river ferries out of harm's way.
In total, 37 recommendations were made by Mr de Jersey and accepted by Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner.
The council's infrastructure committee chairman, Andrew Wines, said Brisbane City Council was "on track with implementing its rebuild and recovery plan with all 12 actions with an end-of-August time frame done and delivered".
"Our message to residents is that it is important to be prepared," Cr Wines said.
"We are getting the city prepared and encourage residents to also take steps to protect themselves and their properties."
Cr Wines also said the council would publish a new flood map interface on its website in the coming weeks that would include details of river, creek, and overland flooding.
In response to recommendations about reviewing the use of the Mud Army, Cr Wines said the council would make sure volunteers were sent to areas of need within their own community.
In March, fewer than 2,000 volunteers who turned up to help after the floods were sent out to work.
That was despite more than 16,000 registering for a coordinated clean-up day on March 5.
By then, much of the initial clean-up work had already been completed.
"Spontaneous volunteering is recognised and expanded options are being developed with links to community hubs," a council spokeswoman said in addressing the Mud Army recommendation.
Cr Wines said the Mud Army was "an effective and efficient volunteer tool".
"I can tell you as a councillor, whose ward was hit pretty heavily, when I called for help we had Mud Army volunteers in the front yard of houses that were ruined within 15 minutes," he said.
"The emotional power of that was huge.
"We are making sure if you volunteer to help, we try to keep you in your community. People are indicating they'd rather not be bussed to other areas."
Sandbag, evacuation policies under fire
Labor opposition leader Jared Cassidy criticised the LNP-majority council for not investing in more sandbagging machines or revealing new sandbag collection locations.
He said, during February's floods, residents were "forced to drive halfway across the city and wait for three hours" at sandbag depots in Darra, Lota, Morningside, Newmarket, and Zillmere.
On Tuesday, Cr Schrinner announced a special sandbag collection day on September 17 allowing residents to stock up ahead of storm season.
He said 150,000 sandbags would be available for collection.
Cr Schrinner also said the council was not asked to address whether it had enough sandbagging machines in its facilities.
However, Cr Cassidy said that initiative did not "address this significant failure" and also called for the Lord Mayor to reveal the locations of more evacuation centres across the city.
Cr Schrinner said details on evacuation centres would be released in the coming weeks.
$50m fund will buy up to 36 homes
Cr Wines also told ABC Radio Brisbane homes bought by the council under the Queensland Reconstruction Authority's (QRA) Voluntary Home Buy-back Program (VHBP) would be removed and the land used for parks, sports fields, or flood detention basins.
The council has received $50 million to begin the purchase of properties.
Sixteen home owners have been approved for the first round of the VHBP and Cr Wines expected up to another 20 homes would be approved in the second round.
Cr Wines said buying up to 36 homes would "almost entirely" use up the $50 million allocation.
He said using application data from the council's rates rebate for uninhabitable homes, there were 160 properties that could not be safely used.
Twenty-five of those were in Oxley, 17 in Graceville, 15 in Rocklea, nine in Deagon, nine in Fairfield, and eight in Sherwood.
Sandy Xia received $50,000 from the Queensland government to repair her Rocklea home — money she said was nowhere near enough to replace the walls, flooring, and ceiling.
The mother of a young son was still waiting to hear from a representative of QRA's Resilient Homes Fund six months after her home was completely inundated.
Moorooka Ward Labor councillor Steve Griffiths said hundreds of families in his area were trying to recover but remained fearful of predictions for more rain and flooding in the coming months.
Cr Griffiths said QRA's approach lacked coordination.
"Some people are selling, the houses are being done up and put on the rental market but we're going to keep seeing [flooding] repeating over and over," he said.
"Let's resolve this and move people out of the flood's way and move on as a city."
QRA chief executive Brendan Moon said the organisation was undertaking "a massive task".
"We will ensure all of those people who have sought funding under this scheme are contacted as quickly as possible," he said.
New road signs alert flooding
Brisbane City Council will begin installing new automated warning signs on roads that frequently flood.
The solar-powered signs have an alarm gauge that activates the sign once a creek or waterway reaches a certain level.
They also contain a camera to monitor the waterway.
The sign will also alert the council once it is activated.
Cr Schrinner said the installation of the signs was part of the council's response to the devastating February flood.
"Unlike 2011, the record-breaking rainfall in February caused a combination of river, creek, and overland flow flooding right across Brisbane," Cr Schrinner said.
"This made it unsafe and impossible for council officers to get to some areas and erect temporary road closed signs.
"By using this automated sign technology, we will be able to close and actively monitor flooded roads, which is a great step forward."
The first three signs will be installed at Gap Creek Road in Kenmore Hills, Bowen Parade in Bardon and Lucy Street in Moorooka.
The signs will be partly funded by a $99,000 federal government payment.
Council will spend a further $500,000 installing up to 12 additional signs across Brisbane by the end of the year.
