Floods in Australia

Interrobang said:
What happend after the 1974 flood? Did they make plans? Build Damns? Install capable drainage? Or did they (politicians) just go "it?s not like it?s going to happen ever again, let?s just ignore it and let people build their houses where the floods were" ?

I was sort of under the impression, this was a first time ... now reading about this having happend (be it a bit less dramatic) 37 years ago ... one might think there would have been preperations made for if something like that happend again ...
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Yeah I heard about the QLD premier of the time building the Wivenhoe dam to prevent any more disasters like what happened in 1974 and even going as far as declaring it'll never happen again. He might've been right had they not developed as much as they have in the last 25 years or so, building houses on the floodplain and redirecting waterways, etc.
 
Some SES volunteers from Port Lincoln have deployed to Queensland, along with specialist police divers, search and rescue personel from the Adelaide Metropolitan Fire Service and SA Police. More to follow.

The first team to volunteer and head up were SES members from Port Lincoln, with a team member saying "We wanted to say Thank You by repaying the efforts of Queensland crews who flew down and helped us out in the Port Lincoln bushfires".
 
Interrobang said:
What happend after the 1974 flood? Did they make plans? Build Damns? Install capable drainage? Or did they (politicians) just go "it?s not like it?s going to happen ever again, let?s just ignore it and let people build their houses where the floods were" ?

I was sort of under the impression, this was a first time ... now reading about this having happend (be it a bit less dramatic) 37 years ago ... one might think there would have been preperations made for if something like that happend again ...
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Thing is, proposing a plan for mayor waterworks for a location were this sort of thing only happens every few decades is risky....
An effective plan for an area this large and a situation as severe as this would be big, REALY damn big, and more importantly realy expensive.

Right after the disaster everybody will scream for action, 5 years later some wil have partly forgotten about it, 10 years later the first naysayers will appear claming its a big waste of time and especialy money 'their money' , and 15 years later everybody will wonder why they keep pumping money in maintaining defenses 'that serve no purpose'......until it happens again obviously.

Holland is a fraction of the affected area but the Dutch pump millions if not billions of cash a year in upgrading and maintaining their water defenses, why? Cause they will drown if they don't, and they know it.

But try pitching a plan like that (even a much slimmed down one) to a nation that is mostly desert....
 
What surprises me is how the Death Toll in Australia is so low and yet the death toll in Brazil is so shockingly high. well not really surprising when you compare the two countries. Its just that with all the talk of being unprepared and so on, it just strikes me when i look at Brazil just how bad it actually could have been in Australia. Homes have been ruined and so on but homes can be rebuilt, its when lives are lost when a true tragedy occurs.
 
jedd_kenobi said:
What surprises me is how the Death Toll in Australia is so low and yet the death toll in Brazil is so shockingly high. well not really surprising when you compare the two countries. Its just that with all the talk of being unprepared and so on, it just strikes me when i look at Brazil just how bad it actually could have been in Australia. Homes have been ruined and so on but homes can be rebuilt, its when lives are lost when a true tragedy occurs.
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We're alot more spread out and alot less densely populated. We also have very good flood prevention infrastructure. I know it may not look like it now however, but just imagine the devastation without assets like the Wivenhoe Reservoir.

Our planning laws tend to have tighter rein on the quality of buildings and the locations in which they are built. Of course we've seen this fail as in the QLD floods and the recent Victorian floods but to a minimal extent.
 
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I think the fact that we had warnings (and importantly, the tools/manpower to get them out there) are the main reason for the lack of deaths. Looking at the people who died, most were in the lockyer valley where there was very little warning. A couple others seemed to have ignored police warnings :(
 
That and as Kev said (and I'm no fan) we have excellent disaster recovery facilities, we will recover and we rebuild!
 
Hidden_Hunter said:
That and as Kev said (and I'm no fan) we have excellent disaster recovery facilities, we will recover and we rebuild!
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Are we still talking floods or are we onto cricket now? :p
 
I heard the red cross is gathering essential supplies to send to OZ as we speak .

Just the bare neccesities every Australian needs , portable shelters, food , booze.......





:p
 
Cowboy said:
I heard the red cross is gathering essential supplies to send to OZ as we speak .

Just the bare neccesities every Australian needs , portable shelters, food , booze.......





:p
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aparantly they're trying to avoid the same situation that happens with alot of disasters that are uncoordinated with lots of stuff sitting around
 
Western Vic is going under too now. A lot of the towns affected are places I usually drive through, and do the touristy-thing in too (Creswick, Clunes, Talbot, Skipton, Beaufort etc.) It's pretty damn sad actually.:-(

Some of those places were inundated just last September during those rains too. On Thursday, some low-lying parts of Ballarat were also a bit flooded, but this was mostly due to storm water being overwhelmed rather than creeks overflowing, although the Yarrowee Creek was still doing it's best impression of a raging river when I was at my father's place (he lives nearby a section of it) when I was there on Friday night.
 
Is there any chance of the floods affecting Melbourne or Sydney? It could spell disaster if all three major capitals are hit, even if not at the same time.
 
LeMans GTR said:
Is there any chance of the floods affecting Melbourne or Sydney? It could spell disaster if all three major capitals are hit, even if not at the same time.
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There were moderate flood warnings for various bits of North/North West Melbourne as well as the occasional flooded roads here and there. About 80 homes were warned about potential flooding, but I never heard any issues. It was more of a nuisance to people than a threat of severe damage. As for the city, I was there last night and the Yarra was well below breaking Southbank. Can't say for Sydney.

Stay safe up there in rural and country Vic. (Zesty & co.) :)
 
I haven't heard any warnings for Sydney thankfully, so it should be fine.

I caught a story on Sunrise this morning where they were looking through one of the houses severely damaged by floods in Qld. There was a restored '60s Daimler in the garage that was ruined by the floodwaters, I hope the owner can still restore it after all the costs of getting the house fixed.
 
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