Although a tragic catastrophe, for the poor sods who copped it, Brisbane' sunday storm is only a very minor thing compared to what nature can throw at us.

If compared to Katrina, that hit New Orleans, this was much weaker, & covered only 2% of the area of that US storm. If we had been hit by a Katrina, we would have had more than half of south east Qld, with the same, or greater damage as the couple of suburbs affected.

I remember all the commentators back then, smugly denigrating the efforts of George Bush, & the US disaster relief people, with more than a little justification, in that event. Well I hope the smugness has gone from their thinking. We aint that good, either.

If it can take us as long as it has, with a very large effort by volunteers, council staff, Energex, & now the army, with the small area damaged, how much help could residents expect after a major cyclone. Waiting for someone with a tarp to help might be an exercise in futility, it might be self help, or none.

Now is definately a good time to have a new look at our councils disastrous, impractical tree policies.

Once again my sympathy to those who have, & are still suffering, & my congratulations & thanks to those who are busting a gut, helping out.

What's with this "we" business old man? How good did you think you were?

Storm damage that is being cleared up by mostly volunteers, whilst still maintaining services such as electricity, is going to take time, there's no doubt about that. The time and resources are being used in making affected homes livable, there's no mass evacuation needed or necessary. However, there is a plan for that also.

Comparing a large storm damage clean up to something like Hurricane Katrina is ridiculous. We had towns virtually wiped off the map when Larry hit, and our emergency services kicked in pretty well and didn't argue about whose jurisdiction it was and who should invite whom to the party like the FEMA/homeland security debacle.

I bet you complained about the cost of bananas at the time too.

My brother lives in Byron Bay, and he says
that any one who still doesn't believe in
climate change should come and pay them a visit.

Storms, like the kind he's never seen,
seem to be occuring more and more often .
And the havoc that's wrecked as a result is
mind boggling.

My brother does feel strongly though about both the
volunteers and the service crews that do
work their guts out to help and try to restore
normality as quickly as possible. Those people
should not be critized for the time and effort
that they put in. They deserve our respect and
Thanks. Where would we be without them?

However, getting rid of problem trees near homes,
is an issue that definitely should be looked at
both by home-owners and councils. It could save
damage to homes, and a lot of heartache and work
for everyone.

i think i would put it differently

the privatised power company isnt as good as they thought they were
nor as clever ,noting more than half the damage was done by trees falling then breaking something.

the mulinationals [now owning and running public utilities for proffit ,have saved costs by not keeping the power lines/ road verges etc clear of dangerous trees

and failed big time in pole replacement and other maintance that would cut into THEIR bottum line costs [the easiest cost cutting there is is not doing maintanance]

no doudt an insurance policy is cheaper than servicing our infastructure

[there should be a wake up call
havnt we seen the same thing on nsw rail
[leting the infastructure fail to prop up shareholder proffit ,then in time a govt [tax payer paid] repair job]

the wake up call began as early when gen moters shelf companies bought up and allowed the tram ways systems to run down
#[just to get us into auto mobiles]

we have seen cooperate holdings
[held by other coorperate holdings]
sold by share swaps

[that effectivly has the numbers so that individual shareholdres become mere unsecured creditors subjected to the company line and the agregate company vote
voting to diminish the consumer of any service but lip service

aND WORSE GOVT RAIDING THE PuBLIC PURSE TO COVER THEIR BOTTUM LINE and revenue raise by selling of THE peoples assets

[then revenue raise using ever more policing of the people [speed traps /red light camersa , but not stopping break and enter and rape

[and not checking the sustauinablity of the peoples infastructure]
yep they arnt as clever as they thought
[or perhaps we are as dumb as they think.

Bugsy, you miss my point entirely. I think this has been a magnificent effort by the CES.

It has been quick, quite well organised, & must be approaching near 100% capacity. With the added workforce from councils & the defence force, I doubt there is much more available to help.

In a really large storm I think our efforts would be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the damage. That is why the worry about tree laws, & the extra damage these large trees cause.

Where I was, on Tamborine Mountain, we started earlier, as did the storm. Enough, but not too much damage, mostly trees on roads. We got enough cleared before it got too dark to chainsaw, to get may be 60 or so people home, but there were many more had to look for accommodation for the night.

If the house blocks were smaller, as in much of SEQ, the damage to houses would have been much greater. It is a problem that should be answered, before we get a big one.

Dear Foxy

The climate has been changing consistently since the creation of the earth. Just remember our national anthem and you will come to the conclusion that summer rains and storms have been part of our landscape for a long time. Remember cyclone Tracy? Climate change is the least of our nations problems. There is and never has been anything we can do about it. That is not to say we should not look after our environment but every theory these quack scientist come up with proves to be false.

I'd have to say that if your point was invoking disaster like Hurricane Katrina and implying that we are hopelessly unprepared to push a review of the councils tree policies, then yes, I do believe I missed it.

Somehow, I failed to spot it in there mixed in with all the false comparisons and irrelevancies. My apologies.

But the amount of resources directed at relief effort is pretty much spot on to what is known as an appropriate response activity. The appropriate activity at this time is mainly involved in minimising and clearing property damage to prevent unsafe living conditions and major disruption to the city. If "the big one" comes, escalations of relief efforts and higher level responses would of course be more appropriate. That is, bugger the houses -evacuate.

There are plans in place at every level including one directed at the household level. There will always be hiccups, but the appropriate authorities and delegations and response actions should not be in doubt.

Council Household plan:
http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/BCC:BASE:1022810136:pc=PC_5059
Brisbane city council disaster plan:
http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/BCC:BASE:1022810136:pc=PC_2942
State disaster management group:
http://www.disaster.qld.gov.au/

Somehow, I think the councils tree policy is a low priority for them at the moment.

But, to be fair I didn't ask exactly what you find disastrous about the current policy, and you didn't tell us either.