kmguru: Unfortunately there is no electricity production as water flow through the Brisbane Valley is rather intermittent. Instead it is used for fresh water supply and flood mitigation
I find cosmics comment MONUMENTALLY commonsense! Because of the coverup, their has been a general public malaise, the acheivements of the taskforce on Suburban Flooding have been minuscule. 19 homes had been purchased under this scheme to buy back those residences that flood, on average, once every two years.
WTF? There were nearly as many people living in the areas affected by Katrina as in all of Queensland. But to put this in perspective Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said yesterday that due to the floods 20 people were killed, 28,000 homes would need to be completely rebuilt and that the cost might hit $6 Billion. In contrast 1,836 people were killed by Katrina and over 150 bodies were never even recovered. About 275,000 Homes were destroyed in Louisiana and 65,000 in Mississippi and the property damage was $90 Billion and the total cost was nearly $200 Billion, so you REALLY haven't a clue what you are talking about. At least you just had flooding, Katrina was both water and Cat 4 hurricane wind damage as the wind speed of Hurricane Katrina reached 175mph. I'm not trying to minimize the pain and suffering you are going through, but you should not try to minimize the far greater disaster that was Katrina either. Arthur
PWho said it was only Queensland? Victoria is facing its worst flooding, NSW has flooding, tassie has flooding, even SA has flooding though much more minor. And WA has flooding, fires AND a cyclone. The US has a much larger population, sure there maybe more people involved in Katrina but there are (or should be) more Emergency workers, health workers, government workers ect. Brisbane is the third largest city, the area flood effected is gratter than France AND Germany and that's igoring the rest of the country. Oh and BTW the PM was there the next day and she brought a general straight away. The SES, police, redcross, St john, fire services were there WHEN IT WAS HAPPERNING. The the dead for the most part come from a town sitting on the top of a hill which had 5 min warning that it was going to be hit by a 20 meter high wall of water. You seen the day after tomorrow where the floody hits NY? That's what happened to this little town
Not to be nitpicky, but a few factual corrections. Grantham and the lockyer valley is below the ranges. Most of the water that flooded through Toowoomba went west, but there was just as large a downpour on the Slopes that went East through the valley. Most of the people who died were in Grantham and the Lockyer Valley area. And personally I don't think it fair to compare an apple to an orange. Australia has suffered through large distasters for as long as we can remember and the logistical operation to prepare, survive and recover is not nearly as large as it is for a major US city with a large under priviledged population. Sure you can argue it is all relative, but when you think about it (and i'm sepcifically using brisbane here as the example), its quite a large operation. New Orleans etc etc were evacuated (as best as possible) prior to Katrina and the infrastructure damage was immense, to the point where access to and from the towns/cities effected was difficult if not impossible. The people who were cut off needed to be taken care of but the logistical supply chains could not reach the people for the most part. Add in some mismanagement and you have a recovery effort that quite frankly sucked. Also add a storm surge where people could not be airlifted or evacuated due to the winds and you've got a recipe for a major disaster. Brisbane on the other hand went about its daily business for the most part and very few areas were completely cut off. Access between major parts of the city was largely unaffected, as detour routes were possible. Emergency services were located in the city for the entire time and were able to assist as required. The areas that were cut off, were mostly resupplied by air and with small populations, its not that big a task to do. Having said that, a few areas slipped through the cracks and it wasn't until locals rang up ABC radio and complained did the Emergency services start helping. Either way it just goes to show how poor city/suburban planning can effect so many and another reason why the upcoming enquiry will be a good thing.
Are we seriously going to have a "my natural disaster is bigger than yours" debate? Fine. Fine. Have at it. We'll see where it goes. ~String
Possible but 1 small oversight, the ABC effectivly IS an Emergency service, it is the main point of contact for the Emergency services and government during a disaster and is a part of the state and federal disaster management planes. That air raid siren sends chills up my spine whenever I hear it I might add.
Again, all told your damage is less than Katrina, even when you scale it between our countries, Australia is 1/14th the population of the US, but the damage/deaths were far more than 14 times as great. 14 times 20 people dead is 280 people, yet 1,836 people died in Katrina, and yes there were some areas of raging rivers in this tragedy, but for the most part your flooding was just slowly rising waters, something that is relatively easy to deal with. Brisbane is pretty much back to normal already, so NO, it wasn't like Katrina which took YEARS of rebuilding to begin to regain normalacy again in NOLA. In other places there was nothing left to rebuild. And it's one thing to bring in response teams when it's raining, it really isn't quite like a flooding from SALT WATER while going through a CATAGORY 4 HURRICANE. Again, I'm not saying you aren't having a hard time of it, but you TOTALY underestimate how bad Katrina was. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Katrina was FAR WORSE than what you are going through and virtually all those people died during the storm, not because of anything to do with relief efforts and the area of damage means diddly squat, it's people that you rescue, not land. And NO, the relief effort wasn't screwed up, it's simply that no country has that much relief equipment/people/supplies on hand, and no way to deliver it to those many stranded people, because a hurricane can hit our country anywhere on the entire Eastern Seaboard as well as anywhere along the Gulf Coast. What really bothers me is wondering why can't you deal with your issues without at the same time using it as a way to BASH the US? Is that REALLY necessary? Arthur
No that's not my intent and I'd of never mentioned it if it wasn't for that stupid remark about Katrina was just one city. I mean did he not realize that 3 times as many houses were lost in the state next to the one that New Orleans is in as were lost in the recent Australian floods? I mean I know we don't always understand each other's countries and geography, but give me a break, Katrina was a huge disaster, far larger in scope and loss of life and property, and to minimize it makes no sense at all. Arthur
So, what are the specific causes and what was not done proactively to avert the disaster.... our time is coming... http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelo...lifornia-could-be-struck-by-winter-superstorm
kmguru: Wivenhoe dam is built to hold 1.165 million megalitres as water storage with a further 1.45 million megalitres for flood mitigation. Since March 2010 the dam has reached and stayed pretty consistantly around the 95% mark and due to the drought we had preceding it, I can understand the thinking of holding all water in case we don't get anymore rain for a while (if that was the case). However the Bureau of Meteorology has for many months now predicted a big wet season due to the influence of the La Nina weather pattern. Leading up to the massive rain event that was seen in SE Queensland the dam reached 121% plus, capacity many times and water had to be released according to the dam operators instructions. Approximately 48-72hrs before the rain event, a number of forecast sites predicted rainfalls of up to 80-100mm across the catchment area. In my opinion, and only if it were possible, the dam operators should have released a few more megalitres from the dam to offset any inflows that they would have received during the rainfall event. If the predictions were wrong and less water entered the dam, then knowing that we are still in a strong La Nina still present means that you could be sure of rain restocking the supplies eventually. Ultimately there are many ifs and buts with the flood mitigation aspect of the dam. Operators are bound to a manual that was written during long periods of drought and subsequently aren't prepared to handle the fluctuating climate situation. The Dam also fails to satisfy the Australian National Committee on Large Dams (ANCOLD) guidelines on acceptable flood capacity, so there needs to some questions asked and projects undertaken to ensure that a rainfall event like the one we saw recently doesn't cause another flood. With that in mind, if its gonna flood, it will flood. You can't stop mother nature. Asguard: Having done a bit more research on the events leading up to the floods and the actions of the dam operators... I guess i'm now making a point and pushing it until i'm convinced of it being wrong Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
