Aussie City Braces For Worst Flood In 118 Years 214
aesoteric writes "As parts of the Australian state of Queensland either experience or prepare for the worst floods to ravage the state in over 100 years, Australia's techies have taken it upon themselves to keep communications services on as the crisis unfolds. One man is mirroring flood information from a faltering Brisbane City Council website, and others have opened WiFi channels in their neighbourhood whilst mobile signal gets choked. But there is major damage to telco networks — at least one major fibre link has been severed by flood waters, telephone exchanges have been knocked offline and cell towers put on battery or generator back-up (or offline altogether). On a sombre note, the floods have claimed 10 lives, including children, and 78 people are still missing after facing a torrent of water up to 8 metres (26 feet) high."
Re:Please Donate (Score:5, Insightful)
It's awesome to see techies and everyone else working to do their part.
What I find actually uplifting is this part: On a sombre note, the floods have claimed 10 lives, including children, and 78 people are still missing after facing a torrent of water up to 8 metres (26 feet) high."
Think about that number and compare it with the number of dead and missing from many "classical" disasters - for floods, the usual death count is in the multiple thousands. Roughly 3000 in the monsoon floods for the past few incidents in Asia, for instance.
It's a tragedy when people die in a natural disaster, but if the death count is below 100, they did a great job preparing and minimizing casualties!
Sigh... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Please Donate (Score:3, Insightful)
The Queensland Government has set up a disaster relief fund for donations
http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html [qld.gov.au]
Please Give.
Do they really need the money? Australia is a rich country, no one is going to go hungry as a result of this flood, and those who've lost their homes will be housed -- in the worst case -- by the government.
I think a donation to rebuilding flooded areas in Pakistan would achieve more.
Re:What Is This, The Weather Channel??!! (Score:3, Insightful)
Srsly?
Besides the human interest story, there is a specific news item in the post about tech people making communications easier in the midst of disaster. Isn't that really interesting for your inner nerd?
Re:Sigh... (Score:4, Insightful)
What I don't understand is people who got wiped out in Katrina, got paid, and then used their money to move back in. If someone hands you a check, take it and run like a motherfucker!
Re:Remember when you're reading this... (Score:5, Insightful)
If you want to feel the effects of climate instability, you just gotta come down here, where it's sunny and 36 degrees celsius (96 degrees fahrenheit) one day and raining and 22 degrees celsius (71 degrees fahrenheit) the next.
It's been fucking insane.
Hell, that's Melbourne weather at ANY time during the summer.
Re:Remember when you're reading this... (Score:4, Insightful)
you just gotta come down here, where it's sunny and 36 degrees celsius (96 degrees fahrenheit) one day and raining and 22 degrees celsius (71 degrees fahrenheit) the next.
It's been fucking insane.
We call that "Indiana". I see your instability and raise you.
70F and sunny and 6" of snow and 14F.
Also, how do you measure rain? Stateside it's not in volume but in just inches. Now I believe that they use a capture device with a 1" sq top.
Re:Sigh... (Score:4, Insightful)
As a dutch person I'm offended by this. It's perfectly possible to live in areas that flood easily or are even below sea level. You just need to prepare for it, and respect the water.
Also, flood areas of rivers are very fertile, you want to build food on those lands, or keep cattle on it.
Re:Please Donate (Score:4, Insightful)
No offence but that scenario would never happen in AU. Good efforts will be made to rebuild, just as they have been in every previous disaster (Australia is pretty accustomed to major floods, cyclones and fires). Australian cities are generally in a much better state of upkeep than in the US even before a disaster hits. (I'm not saying this in an inflammatory manner, but there is a LOT of urban decay in some places in the US, particularly the downtowns of rust belt/midwestern cities like Detroit.)
As an aside I am appalled that New Orleans is still in the state it's in. I'm an Australian but married an American and spend a good portion of my time in the US now. I cannot understand why the US seems to be such a nation of contrasts: how can a country which is wealthy and mostly filled with good infrastructure seemingly ignore such disrepair and decay in a major city? I'm pretty sure if a similar event happened to Boston or LA or Manhattan that it would have been rebuilt years ago. It's almost like different places in the US act are treated according to completely different rules or something ...
Re:Please Donate (Score:5, Insightful)
Do they deserve donation money - or is this a classic case of reap what you sow - privatizing profits and socializing losses? Australia and especially conservative Queenslanders are amongst the staunchest climate change denialists [uq.edu.au] out there (from link: "There's been a big swing back towards climate change denialists...").
Wow. This reminds me of seeing the TV footage of people dancing in the streets when the twin towers came down. Do you really believe that the people affected by these floods deserved it? Is this God smiting the wicked people of the world?
I certainly believe that man causes climate change, but I put my feelings on this matter aside and feel sympathy for the thousands of people who have had their lives turned upside down. It is called being human.
Re:Please Donate (Score:2, Insightful)
Wow. This reminds me of seeing the TV footage of people dancing in the streets when the twin towers came down. Do you really believe that the people affected by these floods deserved it? Is this God smiting the wicked people of the world?
I certainly believe that man causes climate change, but I put my feelings on this matter aside and feel sympathy for the thousands of people who have had their lives turned upside down. It is called being human.
Sympathy for the victims, yes. These people deserve all our sympathy + every cent of their own governments annual $3.22 billion in coal royalties (and then some) in financial aid to help them recover. The families of those who have lost their lives deserve our deepest condolences. However - What the the world does not deserve is climate denialist states like theirs blithely selling dirty coal (20% of world production) at massive profits - outspoken members of their parliament publicly ridiculing the worlds climate scientists so they can continue to avoid and suppress real climate change debate. Donation money is not required for a rich state like Queensland with $33.2 billion in yearly profits (and growing) - our money is much better donated to more needy third world countries that are not sitting on top of highly profitable, highly polluting cash cows.
Re:Please Donate (Score:2, Insightful)