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The Forum > Article Comments > Flood mitigation: so much to do, especially in Queensland > Comments

Flood mitigation: so much to do, especially in Queensland : Comments

By Chas Keys, published 28/1/2011

Multi-pronged action is needed from government to protect us from floods.

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Chas, you address the problem as it is, not as we would like it. You have mentioned the standards of homes in flood areas. Maybe more can be done in this regard. We have developed homes that are safer in fire and earthquake zones, the same should be done in flood zones. We can raised the homes, but we could look at the materials they are built with. We could look at have some type of area above flood levels that personal belongings can be restored during floods. I notice that we get warning in many of our flood areas. Another possibility is to build up-down houses, living regions on the upper level, protecting the electrical goods and kitchens in most homes. Must of our country side and suburbs are in flood regions because of the terrain of our country. We could look at the fences around homes acting as levies in a flood. We need to remember what ever we do, will make things worse elsewhere.
Posted by Flo, Friday, 28 January 2011 2:24:39 PM
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Going by the number of houses that have been built on the flood plains and on the river and creek banks by both developers and individuls, they have to be weaned off this idea that living on the verge of a stream is a must. I saw enough damage and despair in the 1974 flood to cause a double think about rebuilding, but within six months, new homes were being built in areas were homes had been ravaged. People will not listen to intelligence about these sort of things, the last flood was fifty years ago, it won't happen again, I am not moving. So all the damage to homes and other property, happens all over again. Flood mitigation can work on the lower floods, but take the 1892-3 flood, that was up to three meters above the last flood, and is no guarantee that we don't have another even higher even within the next year or so.
Posted by merv09, Saturday, 29 January 2011 5:52:18 AM
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Exactly Merv. The problem with all the flood mitigation stuff is that it gets totally abused by greedy buggers to develop unsuitable flood prone land. My mother would frequently ask estate agents about flood risk and got treated like a nut case. "No, there wont be any more flooding with the Wivenhoe." was a stock response. And I know of another woman a couple of years ago who questioned the sense of building a nursing home on a former swamp. She got the cursory response, "In that case we will carry out the residents on our shoulders.".

Sometimes guarantees are pretty hollow. The supposedly Citycat and flood proof walkways, which failed an both counts, is testament to this. The worst that could happen is that further mitigation efforts will be used as an excuse for further greed based idiocy. The frequent mention by politicians of the latest disaster as a "Once in a hundred year flood." gives me little confidence that things will change.
Posted by Fester, Saturday, 29 January 2011 8:38:54 AM
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Good piece. Showed up several things: that untramelled, poorly planned development is wrong. Not that long ago, the massive increase in population in SE Qld had led to water shortages, and infrastructure building lagged well behind population growth. The ignorance of much of the population is not surprising, people living on a floodplain while ignoring flood warnings is nothing new, many people have more interest in their favourite footy team, TV celebrity or local gossip.

ABC's "The Drum" had a guest who reckoned the Bureau of Meteorology needs another supercomputer to better forecast extreme events like the Toowoomba "inland tsunami". Seems to me the Bureau has a plethora of modern goodies (weatherwatch radars are thin on the ground in some araeas though- SE Qld isn't one of them) yet is downgrading services in the bush with staffing cuts.
Posted by viking13, Saturday, 29 January 2011 6:45:34 PM
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here's an idea, we could adapt to the environment rather than the other way around.

we could decide not to build on flood-prone areas; we could decide to stop over expanding our population; we could live with less waste and pollution; we could become more self-sufficient; we could...............but we won't. profit is more important.
Posted by brennie, Sunday, 30 January 2011 10:37:31 AM
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All to simple mate. With rising sea level more than moving to higher ground is needed. Qld can't handle a king tide, so you are in big trouble. Just hope a tsunami don't come that way.
Sea walls and breakers along the coast. The bed of that river may have to be raised, and levied to drain into the sea. Drain the dam that caused the flood so it can hold water. You have plenty to think about in brisbane, let alone the rest of the state.
Posted by a597, Sunday, 30 January 2011 2:04:35 PM
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