The Social Network & Community JUST for Firefighters
AUSTRALIA FLOODING
Australia is currently experiencing huge flooding from excessive rain.
Deaths and destruction... and inland tsunamis...
My news compared it to the U.S. Hurricane Katrina in destruction area - thankfully not equal in death toll - but the flooding continues.
My thoughts and prayers are with all our Australian brothers and sisters who are rescuing in these conditions and all those who are fleeing their homes to safety.
I am sure there is much better news on it - maybe FFN webmaster can post some, since everyone in Australia is working their tails off.
Google areas such as - Queensland Australia
http://news.yahoo.com/video/world-15749633/23819063
http://www.smh.com.au/business/queensland-shuts-down-20110112-19obp.html
http://www.newsmild.com/australia-flood-death-toll-rises-rains-cause-more-havoc
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Vic Silverfish on
-
Ben - they've mobilised massive numbers of people (mostly civilians) to clean the place up. Moving debris out of roads, clearing the ruined stuff out of houses, drying houses out (basically removing the standing water from floors and whatnot). There are thousands of volunteers, firefighters, soldiers, SES, etc. cleaning up. There appears to be very little call for skilled rescuers (there is a call out for electricians, plumbers and gas fitters), but a huge demand for people that know how to use a shovel, mop, or can haul garbage.
-
Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
-
Thanks, Vic. It sounds as if they didn't have much rescue and are quickly moving into recovery. That is also different from Katrina, where FEMA (primarily a recovery agency) essentially tried to move to the recovery phase while there were still thousands of people waiting on rescue.
-
-
Satellite map of the Brisbane flooding.
-
Permalink Reply by Fabulous Heather Days of Summer on
-
Hey Ben that is awesome.
Can you also use your master skill and go onto my Brazil Flood thread and post one for them too?
I am technologically challenged... but this type of pic would be awesome.
-
-
Good points.
One of the key things to note is that FEMA is not primarily a response agency - they're a primary recovery agency.
One of the problems with Katrina is that FEMA was trying to use recovery rules (keep people out, systematically restore infrastructure and services, etc) when there were thousands of people who needed to be rescued, especially in NOLA.
It also didn't help that FEMA counts on the state and local agencies to do their part, and both NOLA and LA's governments started out leaning on the FAIL button. I still can't get the picture of Mayor Nagin asking for evacuation help with the photo of dozens of NOLA buses inundated in the flodd water out of my head.
The thing that continues to frustrate me is that floods are the most predictable kind of natural disaster, and that people worldwide continue to be woefully underprepared for them. When it's been raining upstream for a week, it's a little late to be thinking about swiftwater rescue training and equipment or where to buy sandbags.
-
-
FEMA does both rescue and recovery.
NOLA was going to be a mess no matter what. As much as we all like to pile on Nagen, you have to cut him a bit of slack. I don't expect much from local pols, they tend to not have the experience or training to deal with a major disaster like that. The whole reason we have FEMA is because as a nation, we can put the necessary resources into a team that would not be practical for a state or local jurisdiction. That FEMA was run by an incompetent made a bad situation worse, but it was going to be a pretty bad situation regardless of the response.
-
-
FEMA has no rescue assets. They coordinate some rescue activities using state or local assest in the USAR system, the DMAT system, etc, but there is no FEMA rescue squad sitting around waiting on the next flood or earthquake.
As for local politicians, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if a big hurricane is coming, you don't park you buses below sea level, not evacuate your citizens, then suddenly blame someone else because you screwed up.
Nagin was elected to take care of his citizens. He failed miserably. His lack of experience is no excuse - it was the job he was elected to do.
The fact that Lousiana and New Orleans were run by incompetents that didn't even take the most basic protective actions prior to a storm that they KNEW was coming is what created most of the problems in the first place.
-
Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
-
Theres been afew comparison to Katrine, but don't know where they started.
A few points to consier:
- Katrina was probably the greatest man made disaster, whreas the Australian one is anatural event
- The death toll and destruction for Katrinawas wwwwwaaaayyyyyy worse than the Autralian Floods
- The area of inundation may be greater, not sure though as I'm not sure of the geography of New Orleans
-
-
Katrina wasn't a manmade disaster. It was a hurricane. Disasters don't get any more natural than that.
-
-
Katrina wasn't a manmade disaster. It was a hurricane. Disasters don't get any more natural than that.
Ben, I think there's many that would debate that- sure the hurricane was a major factor, but so was the design issues and ongoing maintenance of the levees. But that's a debate for another discussion....
-
-
Luke,
Most of the area affected by Hurricane Katrina was not inside New Orleans.
Many other areas of Louisiana were devastated by both the wind and the water.
Two other states - Alabama and Mississippi had large areas devastated.
With the exception of the immediate area of New Orleans, none of the other affected areas damage was increased in any way by the failure of a manmade protection system.
Regardless, the failure of a manmade protection system doesn't change a natural disaster like a hurricane or a flood into a manmade disaster. Manmade disasters are things like large hazmat incidents or transportation accidents where a technology failure is the cause. Natural disasters are things like floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, and tornadoes that are caused by forces of nature. The failure of a New Orleans levee doesn't make the Katrina flooding manmade any more than the Interstate I-880 collapse during the Loma Prieta earthquake was manmade because it wasn't reinforced enough to withstand that particular quake.
-
-
Hey everyone - I think the Katrina vs Queensland comparison that I heard started on my local news in the U.S. (California) where they were trying to educate those here in the U.S. about the physical area of the damage ONLY - which helped stimulate me to start this discussion - to increase awareness.
Comparing it to Katrina allowed people here in the U.S. who have never been to Australia - like me - could better understand the physical land mass covered in Australia.
Actually Luke, your pictures comparing the U.S. to Australia served as a better spatial understanding for me - and our news should have used your illustration.
I think here in the U.S., people such as myself, don't really understand how other countries, such as how Australia operates. And some people from other countries others may not fully understand how ours operates to. So thus I am asking so many questions, which I also think spawned some discussion about service provision through the disasters and the population and terrain variance. Everyone has been making interesting points about this.
I personally have not lived to through lots of disasters in my country - to the magnitude of Katrina - so we here have not fully processed that situation. And the area affected by that Hurricane, naturally, then compounded by human error, has not been restored to usable land - and that is a sore subject for our country.
Notice my Brazilian Flooding discussion which is becoming much more severe than Australia and is quickly catching the death toll of other major disasters here in the U.S.
© 2024 Created by Firefighter Nation WebChief.
Powered by
