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."
Please Donate (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:Please Donate (Score:4, Informative)
I'm doing my part!
But no, seriously...I donated $15. Do it, people...what's going on down there is affecting everyone. I know that seems like an obvious thing to say, but it's true: no one is being spared from this disaster. "If we all do a little, we all do a lot."
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!
Re:Please Donate (Score:5, Interesting)
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That said, it is somewhat true. The first world status of Australia means the communications in general (including TV news and such) and disaster warning systems are much more advanced. And more of the population is able to get up-to-date information very quickly and thus warnings can actually have an impact. Population density does play a part, especially since so far the flooding has not hit a major city, and the overwhelming majority of the population IS in the top 5 cities - but not as much as the in
Re:Please Donate (Score:5, Interesting)
Now, when the sea levels rise, that's another story altogether...
Re:Please Donate (Score:5, Interesting)
Very true. Australia is a first world country with good warning systems etc. so you would expect death tolls to be lower than in developing nations. (Having said that, most of the '78 missing' are unfortunately likely to be dead too - the flooding in Toowoomba was so quick that people were washed away before they knew what was happening and may have ended up many, many miles downstream, so it will not be until the water subsides that the true toll will be known).
There's one other thing about the low death toll that has nothing to do with preparation though. Australia is simply not as densely populated as the places you hear about with the multi-thousand death tolls. It's a huge, US-sized continent, with a tiny population. So just due to pure probability, most natural disasters affect rural areas and small towns. Casulaties are therefore usually low.
That's about to change though - the water is now heading out towards the coast, directly through Brisbane. Unlike the other places affected, this is a large, multi-million-person city. Now the flooding there will be a gradual 'river flood' over the next few days (not a flash flood like in Toowoomba), so people do have adequate time to get themselves to safety. But the ~impact~ of it will be immense just due to the fact it is hitting one of Australia's rare densely populated areas. I hope we get away with minimal casualties, but the economic cost will be staggering: so many roads, cars, bridges, telephone poles, signs, bits of telecomms infrastructure and all the other trappings that go with a large city will be washed away. It will be enough to put at least a $15 billion dent in the economy. And that's before we consider the private cost to individuals: it is expected ~9000 homes will be submerged in Brisbane by Thursday. Many of these people won't have flood insurance.
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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.
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A donation to rebuild flooded areas in Pakistan will almost certainly wind up in the pockets of a corrupt government official or anti-Western mullah.
Australia may be a wealthy country in the grand scheme of things, but that doesn't mean that individuals affected by the flooding can't use some additional help. And unlike Pakistan, your donation to Australian flood relief has an infinitely greater chance of actually making to the p
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Staff at hospices are quite used to dealing with fatal diseases. It doesn't mean they can do anything about them.
Re:Please Donate (Score:5, Informative)
Regrettably, I have seen factual reports from a fairly reliable source (The Economist) that exactly what GP said is happening, A lot of flood relief money is sticking to fingers or being routed to the preferted groups rather than the needy groups.
It may or may not be racist, but Pakistan has a pretty corrupt administration. The President used to be known as "Mr 10%", and many accusations of corruption have been made against him. He asserts, possibly correctly, that the accusations were political; on the other hand, it may be that his non-prosecution is political. Whichever way it is, it is an atmosphere in which heavyweight accusations of corruption are not enough to block a political career.
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And I have read the exact same reports, hence my original post. It is not racist to point out the truth of the situation in Pakistan, any more than it is racist to point out that a huge
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Regrettably, I have seen factual reports from a fairly reliable source (The Economist) that exactly what GP said is happening, A lot of flood relief money is sticking to fingers or being routed to the preferted groups rather than the needy groups.
Yes, but some money still gets through to the people who need it. Other money gets taken by some highly paid people high up within the major charities too. But in the end, you just have to treat all that as a cost of getting the aid to the victims of these disasters. In the end, if you don't donate anything because you are too worried that someone might profit from it, then it is not those officials who will suffer - it is the people who have nothing left in the world.
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Widely been estimated by multiple creditable source that as much as 50% of donations made to third world countries are used to fund war, slavery, or simply enrich a dictator. All too often, even when the funds actually do buy, for example, food and medicine, they wind up in a dictator's hands which are then horded away from the people in need.
Topical donations are likely a good thing here, but chances are very high, if you're donating elsewhere, while good intentioned, is empowering the worst humanity has t
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you're insane.
the QLD government does not run the mines. and QLD's actually quite a large fruit, veg and sugar producer.
also, Tasmania's green movement is much less powerful than you would like. the logging companies control Tassie, and the majority of the population is on their side (everyone needs a job).
your agendas have no room in this discussion. get hold of some facts and think things through.
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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.
Yes, I'm sure the head of the Australian emergency management agency will do a heckuva job.
Re:Please Donate (Score:4, Interesting)
Apart from being a rich state within a rich country: 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..."). Further, Queensland is a massive coal exporter - and more than happy to fuel dirty-coal burning [nytimes.com] both in Australia or at export sites the world over, all to make a quick buck. The costs of this flood will be minuscule compared to the Queensland coal industries profits [sixdegrees.org.au]:
In 2009, the [Queensland] state’s 52 coal mines produced a record 195 million tonnes of coal, generating $33.2 billion in export revenue. Queensland is a major player in the international coal market, exporting 168 Mt of coal in 2009 that accounted for 20% of the global trade. The industry generated $3.22 billion in coal royalties, accounting for 9% of the total income of the Queensland Government for the 2008-09 financial year.
Australian media is divided up amongst a few powerful players (Murdoch included) that don't want any meaningful public debate of climate change. For example most Australians are completely unaware of Australia complacency in the farce that is the "Copenhagen accord" on climate change as exposed [guardian.co.uk] by Wikileaks
Queensland Coal and climate change (Score:3, Interesting)
"The coal industry is Queensland’s leading contributor to climate change, amounting to around 394 million tonnes (Mt) of greenhouse gas emissions per year. These emissions are 2.5 times the combined domestic emissions for the entire state, which stood at 160 Mt in 2008, including stationary energy, transport, fugitive emissions, industrial processes, agriculture, waste, and land use, land use change and forestry. Additionally, the mining, processing and transportat
Completely wrong impression (Score:5, Interesting)
Not if you compare to about anywhere in the USA outside of Al Gore's office. We get that reputation from a few loonies in an protectionist Agrarian Socialist party that was so low on members it has ended up attempting to merge with a city based conservative party with a heavy emphasis on uncontrolled free market capitalism. I don't think they'll be doing much more than infighting for a very long time.
Coal, sugar, beef, bananas and pineapples is about all we produce and coal is where the majority of the money is. The coal industry really pays most of the taxes. Thus the government while not denying climate change is stuck in the position where they are addicted to taxes on coal and don't want to do anything to lose that money. Most of the coal actually burnt in the state goes into the state government owned power stations so a tax on consumed carbon becomes the silly situation of a government putting a new tax on itself. It's a tiger by the tail. The only alternatives for government at the moment are flat out batshit insane climate deniers within the group I mentioned about that is too busy with it's own infighting over opposed ideologies to do anything constructive.
Anyway, the street is starting to fill up with water and high tide is still an hour away so it's time to move the car unless I want to risk it bumping against the floorboards.
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Nice tin foil hat you got there. I know far to many people in US government that work hard on coming up with a plan to deal with the incoming changes, they don't deny it, and they strive to fix it.
Re:Completely wrong impression (Score:4, Informative)
This page [qld.gov.au] lists major donors to the state Government's flood relief appeal. There are some resources amongst the list.
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Nothing New (Score:2)
If you've ever bought a home anywhere near water you will have seen references to a "100 year flood plain". Floods happen all the time and every 100 years or so on average you can epect one to be pretty damned big.
To say this is due to AGW is just an example of people having shit for brains.
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While true, the big issue with climate change is it will make the weather more extreme - colder winters and hotter summers, and eve
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Sounds like an 18th Century Medicine man: It will cure arthritis, enhance your sexual prowess, and calm the stomach.
I have a theroy on Global Warming. It will get hotter. It will get colder. Repeat. It's irrfutable.
They have their theory too: It will be hotter. It will be colder. There will be less rain. There will be more rain.
It's nice to have a theroy to which you can attribute everyone outside "normal".
And..Hurricanes? Seriously? You and the emperical data have some talking to do.
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Yes, a single data point is useless, that's why it's all about trends of normal cycles and how they changes.
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.
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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
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Nobody will argue the climate is changing.. it always has, what you will get is people arguing about how much of that is caused by humans, which I think is fair debate.
A lot of greens seem to be very irrational to me, they are the sort of people who (rightly) dislike the burning of coal and yet also hate the idea of approving the construction of modern fast breeder nuclear reactors that recycle their own fuel until what is left is barely above background radiation (and ironically, releases less radiation i
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You can find plenty of idiots in Australia, as you can everywhere, but to blandly declare that Australians as a whole believe that is bullshit. And no, the couple of quotes you gave are just anecdotal and opinions. Of course, the coal industry exerts immense pressure. And governments give way to that. As they do everywhere.
The Wikileak story you link to is about how the USA blackmailed other countrie
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You sir and the climate change alarmists like you are the very reason I'm very skeptical of man-made climate change.
I'm not saying you're right or wrong about your skepticism, however your reasons for such skepticism seem a bit crazy.
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Ask the people in New Orleans. Parts of that city still haven't been rebuilt, and it's been 6 years since Katrina.
Admittedly, Australia appears to be a much better-managed country, but just because it's a rich country doesn't mean that money won't be needed to help rebuild. Though I'm also thinking that there's likely to be more impetus to rebuild in Aus, too.
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 ...
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It must be noted, for the record, that part of the reason that some areas of N'Awlins haven't been rebuilt is that a sizable chunk of the people who left for Katrina never bothered to come back. Why bother rebuilding an area that noone is living in, after all?
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It's true that the Australian government doesn't need to ask for donations to shore itself up during this crisis, unlike perhaps Haiti's or Pakistan's governments. Australia is a very rich country with relatively low debt, the amount of money the government can raise on the open market is many orders of magnitude greater than what any donation appeal can raise.
However it's not that simple, even if the Aussie federal and Qld state governments are very generous there are always limits to what you can pay for
Getacanoe (Score:2)
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On top of that, getting a canoe is definitely not good advice. The SES already had to rescue some moron who thought it'd be fun to canoe down the raging torrent that is now the Brisbane River earlier this afternoon. You are best staying away from flood waters in general as they don't behave in the way standard water in the river does...
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When Nashville flooded last year, an 18-year-old man decided to go tubing down a creek near his apartment when the flood waters began to rise. He was last seen as his tube slammed into a bridge overpass. They found his body about two weeks later.
You really have to wonder about the long-term prospects of those who see raging floodwaters and think: "Hey, tha
Re:Getacanoe (Score:4, Funny)
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Reminds me of a set of photos I saw from an old hurricane.
Picture one was of a fairly normal three-floor apartment complex. Apparently the residents decided to throw a "hurricane party". Stocked up on food and water (and booze and munchies), moved everything up to the third floor, and hunkered down to wait out the storm.
Picture two was of the concrete pad that the apartment complex used to be on - if not for the building footprint, you'd never have known there was a building there in the first place.
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Maybe we could call doing that a Brisbane award instead of a Darwin award
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Anyone wanting to follow this event live can listen to 612 ABC.
The peak of the flood will not hit for another 48 Hours.
http://www.abc.net.au/brisbane/includes/winstream.asx [abc.net.au]
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:It's Fast (Score:4, Informative)
This BBC video link shows how fast the flooding is - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12161502 [bbc.co.uk]
The "original" is perhaps on the ABC website [abc.net.au]
More disturbing is the amount of water that went through the town of Grantham [abc.net.au]
Sigh... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Sigh... (Score:5, Informative)
The people in Brisbane know full well that certain areas are flood prone, especially those that lived through the 1974 floods. Seems that the current flooding is probably a 1-in-100-year kinda event so they got a bit unlucky. But everyone in these areas in Brisbane knows and accepts the risk.
As for the flash flooding in Toowoomba, well that's a different story. I find it hard to fault their choice of where to live. Far from being a flood plain, Toowoomba is on the top of a freaking plateau 700 metres above sea level, and nothing even remotely like this has happened in its recorded history. A freak event, and very sad.
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Wivenhoe has done its job magnificently - I think you must have misinterpreted my post. I'm saying that thankfully this will only look like a 1-in-100 ARI flood. Without the dam, it would have been more like a 1-in-500 year or something. So you are absolutely right, it's unprecedented (at least as far the dam system is concerned).
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.
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build food
This is probably caused by a literal translation from the Dutch, but it still made me chortle.
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True enough. But if you can move uphill without having to learn German, it's wise to do so.
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Yes, but the Dutch take extreme insult at inefficiency and incompetence, not to mention corruption and graft. They will pay a lot for quality work, but by God, it had BETTER be quality work, or there will be Hell to pay.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world carries on with the business of fucking each other over pennies.
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Building on flood areas of rivers and marsh lands ever so happily. Of course its going to flood there.
You know, 75% of the state of Queensland (that is nearly double the size of Texas) has been declared to be in a state of emergency. Are you suggesting that everyone should pack up and move interstate?
Re:Sigh... (Score:5, Interesting)
Now have a look at Ipswich. The flood gauge is expected to peak at 20meters. Let me repeat that for you. The river is expected to be TWENTY METRES higher than it's normal level. So tell me where do you think it is safe to build? How high / far away from a river?
I know lets build in Toowoomba, a town that until yesterday was on level 5 water restrictions (120L per person per day, no watering of gardens, no washing of cars). A town that is built near the great dividng range, a mountainous area way above sea level, and is nowhere near a major river. Today it's totalled.
This isn't a case of stupid town planning. It's a natural disaster, unprecedented even in our flood prone history.
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!
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Indeed. After all New Orleans is catastrophically flooded once per year, or a total of 5 times since Hurricane Katrina. Clearly it would be perfectly rational to base your actions on this extremely common occurrence and move to some other location which never experiences disaster of any kind, leaving your home, friends and job
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I think somebody did - that's why they've all moved to Lancashire. [independent.co.uk]
Remember when you're reading this... (Score:4, Informative)
Remember when you're reading this that it's currently summer down here.
In the region (Brisband) the average temperature for this month is around 27 degrees celsius (80 degrees fahrenheit) [bom.gov.au] and average rainfall is around 100 milliliters for the month (6.1 cubic inches) [bom.gov.au].
In fact, the entire country has had an extremely wet summer, and an extremely dry winter for the last year or two.
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.
Brisband = Brisbane (Score:2)
Wow, worst typo (it's late here).
Brisband = Brisbane
Re:Brisband = Brisbane (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, the worst (best) typo I've ever seen was someone giving a link to the Symbian website (www.symbian.com), but they forgot the m (www.sybian.com).
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I think your best one was to say that the average rainfall is around 6.1 cubic inches! The error is confusing millilitres with millimetres. The first is a measurement of volume (about 6.1 cubic inches) and the second is a length, interpreted in this case as a depth. The area of Brisbane according to wikipedia (I know it's been raining in more than one place but this is an approximation) is 5904.8 square kilometers which gives a total typical rainfall for this area for this month of about 590 million tons or
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LOL Yeah.
It's weird, I didn't really know about weather, and I intuitively thought it would be a measure of volume. So, when I looked at the BOM's site, it even says "millimetres", but somehow I read that as "millilitres", likely because of speed reading and thinking it would be in volume.
Re:Remember when you're reading this... (Score:5, Informative)
Small correction ... rainfall is measured as a 'depth', not a 'volume'. So *millimetres* is the unit you are looking for. Average rainfall of 100 mm equates to around 4 inches.
To put the rainfall SE Queensland has had in perspective, virtually all weather stations in the Wivenhoe catchment have recorded between 400-700 mm of rain in the last ~three days~. Some spots even higher (Maleny in the Sunshine Coast hinterland has 740 mm / 29 inches of rain over the last three days - that is a metric f**kton of rainfall in any language)
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Excellent, wasn't sure about that part, thanks!
That's an insane amount of rain. Considering it basically hasn't stop raining for them this entire month, this months levels are going to be fucking huge! In 3 days, they're already off the highest measurement on the BOM's "average" scale.
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For the moment the water where I am is not going up or down and is just covering the road. The next high tide is half a day away, and the day after that is when most of the water is supposed to be coming through.
Re:Remember when you're reading this... (Score:5, Funny)
1 Metric Fuckton = 1 Imperial Fuckload.
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.
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It's not Adelaide weather at ANY time during the Summer, but it's just about all we've had for the last 2 years.
It's been fucking shit as.
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Hell, that's Melbourne weather at ANY time.
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.
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Yeah, sorry, I messed that up. Another commenter corrected me.
Do your 70F to 14F happen like this... ... and so on.
Day 1: 70F
Day 2: 14F
Day 3: 70F
Day 4: 14F
It's not quite that rapid sometimes, but there's been periods of it. Though our temperatures are more like 100F, 70F, 100F, 70F, and so on.
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Ah yes, Spring, my favorite season.
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Yeah he got his units mixed up - it's the same here in Australia (i.e. an accumulated depth measurement, in millimetres rather than inches though).
Refer to post above: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1945828&cid=34835426 [slashdot.org]
Re:Remember when you're reading this... (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah unfortunately, although I'm Australian and we definitely have extremes in this country, the US midwest has us beat in any "rapid weather change" contest, by a long long way. The extremes in Australia can be just as extreme in magnitude ... but they don't ~change~ as quickly as in North America.
Australia is comparatively insulated from sharply contrasting airmasses meeting each other because we are an island, and there is nothing but ocean between us and the Antarctic. So polar airmasses making their way from the Antarctic up to Australia are considerably moderated and warmed by the ocean before they get to us. Contrast America which has solid land all the way up to the arctic, which doesn't provide much warming (especially when snowcovered in winter) and thus allows airmasses to remain colder for longer as they penetrate southwards. So you can see day by day temperature fluctuations in America that are significantly more severe than in Australia.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Minnesota_weather_records [wikipedia.org]
71 deg F change in one day
Highest temp = 114 deg F on July 6th 1936
Lowest = -60 deg F on Feb 6th, 1996 - I was in Duluth for that one. Exposed skin got damaged quickly.
Variety is the spice of life
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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.
Day to day variation is weather not climate.
That pretty well sums up my life . . . (Score:2)
It's been fucking insane.
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It can be more fun to fuck insane than fuck sane. You just have to be careful, as fucking insane can be kinda dangerous at times...
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But this is the enigma of weather's relationship with climate, they are the same and very different. Climate change will certainly mean expanded, more acidic seas and glacier melt on short term (decadal) timescal
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It's a fallacy that a 1 in 40 year event or a 1 in 1000 year event can't happen two years in a row. It's more like rolling a dice. You'll roll a 4 on average one roll in six, but you can roll three fours in a row ( or more).
It's more accurate to say that a so called 1in 100 year flood has a 1% chance of happening in any given year. Since we are in the middle of another extreme La Nina, an overall 1% chance increases somewhat.
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Or come to Townsville where it's sunny and 35 degrees C or rainy and 32 degrees C.
Re:Remember when you're reading this... (Score:4, Informative)
A little more than two years ago, we were worried whether our dams would run out - you can see some pretty graphs here [seqwater.com.au].
Disturbingly, when the dam was finally full again after 8 years of drought in October, the state opposition leader John-Paul Langbroek called to increase the water storage level [jplangbroek.com] at the expense of flood mitigation. The main dam (Wivenhoe Dam) can hold 225% of it's nominal capacity for flood storage. It's currently at 190%.
The dam is a earth embankment dam and is not design to spill. If so, it may erode the dam and potentially cause it's failure. Hence, there must be a controlled release, even while the flood conditions are occuring and it's a fine balancing act between holding back more rain and flooding downstream.
In general, it is considered that the flood mitigation capacity (about that of Sydney Harbour) will knock about 2m off a flood peak. There would be many more people currently swimming without it, even before it's expected to peak in about 36 hours.
Re: (Score:3)
Hold on.
No.
I've got family in that area, and I've been around for quite a long time now, and it doesn't nor has it happened, again and again.
You're mixing up the flood plains flooding (which does happen regularly), and everything else flooding.
See the footage with all the houses on stilts? That's the flood plains, that's the understandable part.
See the part where the cars are being washed down the road? The houses at ground level being flooded? Or the Wivenhoe Dam levels? These are the unexpected irregular
Difference From Katrina... (Score:4, Interesting)
Good that they value communications (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Keeping the regular citizen from getting himself killed because of a stupid decision
Not a fan of the Darwin awards I guess?
Flooding is the worst (Score:5, Informative)
Another "news for nerds" link ... (Score:3)
Australian Federal Opposition Leader and extreme right-wing conservative Tony Abbott has been vocally opposed to the construction of Australia's National Broadband Network (a national fibre optic network), despite the fact that this position lost them the federal election last year.
Anyway, he is at it again.. using the floods to score cheap political points - http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/372807/floods_show_need_nbn_rethink_abbott/ [computerworld.com.au]
And public opinion of this stunt isn't good! http://twitter.com/search#search?q=tony%20abbott%20nbn [twitter.com]
All the information I have (Score:3)
This is a couple of hours old now, but it was mostly accurate at the time I was trying to get it into wikipedia: (sorry if some wiki synax leaks through, I'm doing this fast)
The following information may be of help to those currently caught in the unfolding emergency.
=Evacuations=
* Evacuations of a number of Brisbane suburbs are likely tomorrow when the river peaks and it is planned to have an increased police presence in and around all evacuated properties.http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/floodrelief/flood-info-centre-updates-reports-warnings-advice-and-how-you-can-help/story-fn7ik2te-1225985436806
* Police are evacuating residents on Dohles Rocks Road, Griffin as well as Goburra Street at Rocklea and McKuulla Street and Skew Street at Sherwood. Stimpson Road and Brisbane Corso at Fairfield are closed. Mt Ommaney area under threat with the rising river levels - 11 January 2011 at 20:50
* An emergency alert has been issued for Dalby residents. Myall Creek will rise to 3.8 metres by 10pm 11/1/11. Concerned residents should evacuate to family, friends or evacuation centres. Call 46626666 for more information.http://www.facebook.com/notes/queensland-police-service/emergency-alert-issued-for-dalby-residents-thebigwetqldfloods/159601107421243 - Tuesday, 11 January 2011 at 20:22
* All members of the community who live or are currently near the Brisbane River at West End are advised to move to higher ground. http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/australian-police-urge-brisbane-flood-evacuations-20110111-19m1s.html
* Evacuation Centre set up - RNA Showgrounds, Bowen Hillshttp://www.facebook.com/notes/queensland-police-service/evacuation-centre-set-up-rna-showgrounds-bowen-hills-qldfloods-thebigwet/159557807425573 Evacuation Centre set up - RNA Showgrounds, Bowen Hills The Red Cross says it will be able to accommodate about 1,000 people.
** A Brisbane City Council statement said the centre had been set up for those who wanted to evacuate of their own accord and could not be accommodated with family or friends. Residents were advised to take their own pillows and sheets, medication, important documents and spare clothing. Pets are unable to be accommodated at the evacuation centre.http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/weather/100000-to-lose-power-supermarkets-bare-as-flooding-crisis-continues-20110110-19l56.html
** Evacuations began in Brisbane last night with the RNA Showgrounds expected to house up to 3000 people. Concerns were raised that this space would be insufficient and more than 6000 people would possibly need temporary accommodation.http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/brisbane-braces-for-the-worst-as-record-floodwaters-loom/story-e6freon6-1225985939905
* Evacuation centre reported at Ipswich Showgrounds.http://kempsey.iprime.com.au/index.php/news/national-news/evacuations-under-way-across-southeast - more information needed
* The Queensland flood crisis has triggered evacuations in the heart of Brisbane, amid [[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/queensland-floods/police-warn-that-queensland-floods-death-toll-will-exceed-20/story-fn7iwx3v-1225985503963 reports]] that another five bodies have been found.
* [http://www.facebook.com/pages/Queensland-Floods-Temporary-Accommodation-Help/100641316678419?v=wall Queensland Floods Temporary Accommodation Help] is a facebook group which contains offers of accomodation and contact details.
* [http://www.facebook.com/notes/queensland-police-service/from-bom-severe-weather-warning-cancellation/159618004086220 Severe Weather Warning Cancellation] Heavy rain areas have eased during the past few hours and further flash flooding due to rainfall is no longer expected. - 11 January 2011 at 22:04
=Affected Areas=
* Bereau of Meteorology [http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/warnings/ Queensland Warning Summary] containing [http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/wrap_fwo.pl?IDQ20885.html flood warnings] for (at 7am, 12th January 2011):
** Fitzroy River
** Burnett River
** Mary River
*
New Evacuation Centre Information (Score:3)
Just found the Brisbane City Council Newsroom [qld.gov.au], which has recent updates. For example, this new information (to me) on evacuation centres:
Residents urged to bring own bedding to evacuation centres [qld.gov.au]12/1/2011
Brisbane City Council advises that although there will be some bedding provided at evacuation centres across the city, residents are urged to bring their own bedding when accessing the centres.
Council expects high demand for access to the evacuation centres and recommends residents bring their own supplies
Re: (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: (Score:2)
Lots of Love? Aw how sweet...
Oh who the fuck am I kidding everyone knows what it really means =(
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Do you think that Gandhi, your namesake, would approve of you purposefully trying to cause a fight?
Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding. ~Gandhi
Re: (Score:2)
Do you think that Gandhi, your namesake, would approve of you purposefully trying to cause a fight?
Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding. ~Gandhi
Dude, GP is Gandhi II! He's a one man recking crew. But he also knows how to party.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfvLcozLwtE [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:2)
sarah palin blaming
Well she could have at least warned the Australian public that the floods were on the way. I'm sure that she can see Queensland from Alaska!