A real "Situation X"

So I see a lot of threads pop up regarding preparing for situation X, what a situation X could be etc etc.

I thought I would bring to the attention of the board of a situation that is currently happening in Queensland, Australia.

60% percent of the state has been declared a disaster area after widespread flooding.

Queensland is 1.8 million square kilometres (or 700,000 square miles).
To compare - Queensland is 2 and ½ times the size of Texas and is 4 and ½ times the size of Japan.

Some news articles:

www.news.com.au...

SIXTY homes were inundated in Emerald yesterday after the swollen Nogoa River swamped low-lying parts of the central Queensland town.
Further south, the people of Charleville breathed a collective sigh of relief when a temporary levee did its duty and saved the town from a major flood. Forecasters now fear the next target of the floods that have hit much of the state will be the city of Rockhampton.
The floods in Emerald came after hundreds of people were evacuated to higher ground.
The town has been isolated since floodwaters cut the main highway into Emerald on Monday. But the railway line was still open yesterday and trains carried food supplies and other necessities into the town.

Emergency workers and townspeople worked non-stop over the weekend to erect the temporary barrier, which plugged holes in a permanent levee that had been under construction for four years but was unfinished when floodwaters from the Warrego began threatening late last week. Two RAAF Hercules aircraft flew in materials for the barrier on Friday night from NSW. The system, which was invented in Sweden 15 years ago, has proved successful in protecting towns and cities from floods in Europe, New Zealand, and NSW. "What this levee has meant is that the township of Charleville has been spared any serious flooding," Ms Bligh said.

www.abc.net.au...

The Queensland State Emergency Service is still rescuing sick and elderly residents from homes in Ingham as floodwaters slowly subside. Sixty per cent of the state is now disaster declared and while rains have eased in some areas, a large low pressure system off the coast is expected to generate more heavy falls in coming days.

Planning has begun for the clean-up and spokesman for the Hinchinbrook Shire Council Dan Hoban is urging residents to stay as self sufficient as possible for the next few days. "There will be assistance available in the coming days, but at this point we are responding to a large number of emergency calls," he said. Local businessman Alan Gasmeroli says the community is rallying together. "I think ultimately people are pulling together quite well, there's a strong camaraderie in the district at the moment and hopefully that can pull people through," he said.

Some photos can be found here:
www.abc.net.au...

Local news video:



I think this is a good example of a real natural disaster "Sit X"

Community banding together to help each other out.
Army mobilising to bring aide to those stranded.
No looting, no one bearing arms to protect themselves (Don't need to)
Support from the government.





[edit on 5-2-2009 by Chadwickus]

Those Aussies are never satified, One part of the place whinging about to much water, and its neighbour whinging about having no water.

news.bbc.co.uk...

Parched Perth embarks on water rescue

By Phil Mercer
BBC News, Perth, Western Australia
Authorities in Western Australia say they can show the world how to conquer a water crisis that had threatened to decimate the state capital, Perth, amid a long-standing drought and declining rainfall.
Turning the sea into drinking water is at the heart of Western Australia's multi-faceted approach to satisfying the thirst of a booming population that lives on the edge of a desert.
"We had a history of taking gutsy decisions," said Jim Gill, former chief executive of the Water Corporation of Western Australia, a government-owned monopoly.
"And that's what put us in a position of world leadership in terms of dealing with a drying climate."
The corporation opened the southern hemisphere's first desalination plant, south of Perth, in November 2006.

Powered by a wind farm, the move was prompted by the driest winter ever recorded in Western Australia (WA) - a region that was among the first to see the effects of a shifting climate.
"2001 was the winter from hell, and we only get our rainfall in winter," Dr Gill told BBC News.
"It was unbelievably dry, and we postulated the scenario of another two or three years like that and frankly we were going to have to shut Perth down.
"We were going to run out of drinking water and the city would become unviable. Luckily, we'd done the homework on desalination and we had the confidence to go ahead and do it."
Salt tolerance
Other Australian cities are following the lead set in WA, where a second facility is due to open in 2011.
When it opens, a third of the state's drinking water should come from the Indian Ocean as the authorities pursue a raft of measures, including recycling sewage, new reservoirs and efforts to cut household demand.
Huge aquifers are also vital sources of fresh supplies to a parched region of two million people, where home-owners live under the continent's most relaxed water restrictions.
Desalination is unshakably controversial, and it's a subject that residents living near the plant at Kwinana are keen to discuss.
"I hate it as all it does is put up the cost of water," said Martin Herbert.
But fellow-shopper, Myrna Heslington, a migrant from Mauritius, had a very different opinion: "I think it's excellent - it's lifesaving and a godsend," she said.
Although desalination has a reputation as a pricey technology, the Water Corporation of Western Australia, which operates the plant, says Kwinana water is only about 15% more expensive than the average for other sources.
What crisis?
Water Corporation officials now insist that Western Australia, unlike other parts of the country, no longer has a water crisis.
This bold claim has been disputed by Paul Llewellyn, a Green MP in the state's upper house, who believes that desalinated water "exacerbates the climate problem", is too expensive and is an option that is masking a potentially catastrophic problem.
"It's a fool's paradise; Perth's obviously got an acute water problem," he said.
"I think we've become very complacent. What we should be moving to is a much more intelligent, water efficient economy - that is the way to live with climate change.
"It's not beyond the realms of possibility that Perth could be our first ghost city.
"That's extreme but people will have to have a complete rethink of the way in which they are living."
Far from embarking on a lifestyle revolution where all homes and businesses would be retro-fitted with ultra-efficient appliances and designs, others have suggested that WA simply needs a giant pipeline linking Perth to brimming tropical rivers up north.
For 20 years, Ernie Bridge, a former state minister for water resources, has championed the idea of channelling supplies through a 2,200km pipe from the Kimberley region.
"It would shore up Perth for the next 100 years and would be a pretty easy project to construct," he asserted.
"I can never understand a country like Australia seriously turning to desalination when you've got that abundance of surface water available to us in the north.
"I think there's a bit of stupidity in committing to desalination."
While some have been looking towards the wet tropics for unquenchable sources, Jorg Imberger from the University of Western Australia believes the solution lies underground.
"There is no shortage of water in Western Australia," he told BBC News.
"Underneath the (state's) south-west is an aquifer, and there is a 1,000 years' worth of potable water sitting down there.
"It has very little connection with the surface, and if you pumped it there would be very minor environmental impact."
These deep reserves are up to 100,000 years old; but although there appears to be little political or public appetite to develop such a resource, Professor Imberger said it should be exploited in the same way as deposits of oil and gas.
"Just compare it with minerals, diamonds and coal - you have no problems mining that stuff, and here you have a 1,000 years worth of supply of a vital human resource - water," he insisted.
If the world can learn one lesson from Australia, perhaps it should be how the community's attitudes have moved with the times.
"We have probably been far more water conscious than any developed nation on Earth," said Tom Mollenkopf from the Australian Water Association, an independent body that represents industry professionals.
"There is incredible social pressure to conserve water here," he said.
"Wasting water in Australia is almost considered criminal."


Story from BBC NEWS:
news.bbc.co.uk...

Published: 2009/02/02 18:59:04 GMT

© BBC MMIX

Hmm so I guess a real situation where one could get some insight into it isn't interesting.

Would it have been more interesting if people were getting killed? Or Marshal law was declared?

It probably doesn't help that you're on your own little continent.

Flash floods are the worry. Italy has suffered badly from these and do any Englanders remember Boscastle about 4 years back.

Every time there are rains and major flooding in U.K. you can be fairly safe that all the problem homes are those new developments built on flood plains.

N.B. Don't build your house on a flood plain!

Originally posted by Chadwickus
Hmm so I guess a real situation where one could get some insight into it isn't interesting.

Would it have been more interesting if people were getting killed? Or Marshal law was declared?

Its both fascinating, informative and concerning, I just wanted to show how a two opposites of SITX can affect one place, I NEVER want to read about innocent people losing their lives ( only the guilty like Bush and Blair ) I do feel sorry for all those antipodean men being seperated so long from their sheep though !!

reply to post by Northern Raider



No probs with you mate, I'm near Perth myself so I know first hand the drought problem and ensuing solutions

Originally posted by Chadwickus
reply to post by Northern Raider

 

No probs with you mate, I'm near Perth myself so I know first hand the drought problem and ensuing solutions

Western Oz is a place I have always wanted to visit, especially travelling by train across the Nullabor, Is it your wonderful city that get regular thunder stiorms on an evening off the coast that people like to watch ?

reply to post by Northern Raider


You might be thinking of Broome, which is further north aand has regular thunderstorms in the evenings during the wet season, which is this time of year.

Originally posted by Chadwickus
reply to post by Northern Raider

 

You might be thinking of Broome, which is further north aand has regular thunderstorms in the evenings during the wet season, which is this time of year.

Aha, I had to look that up on my Map , Broome up the the NW, Cheers I stand corrected, My only contact with Oz Survivalist came through Australiasian survivalist forum, and before that I liaised with a group in Narabunda ACT.

reply to post by Northern Raider


Queensland will probably have many thunderstorms this time of year too, which is kinda obvious, since 60% has been flooded.

VICTORIA remains under a shroud of smoke and grief today with thousands homeless and at least 84 people dead after the worst bushfires in the nation's history.

This is a tough one, a real situation, real tragedy, and very real deaths.

Some perspective for how quickly things can turn:

Dr Harvey's daughters Victoria and Ali, in their 20s, told of a local man, Ross, who lost both his daughters and possibly a brother.

"He apparently went to put his kids in the car, put them in, turned around to go grab something from the house, then his car was on fire with his kids in it and they burned," Victoria said.

This is bad, my condolences.

Link.

[edit on 8-2-2009 by Nirgal]

[edit on 8-2-2009 by Nirgal]

reply to post by Nirgal


Hi Nirgal, I was gonna add the Vic bush fires to here as well to show that half the east coast of Australia is under emergency but I thought it may be a bit disrespectful since the event is still occurring.

It is a good example though, of SHTF.

But I doubt most will care or take solace from what happens here.

Edit to add a news piece about it:





[edit on 8-2-2009 by Chadwickus]

The Australian disaster is a nightmare, Its terrible seeing the damage. If I lived down there I would certainly not have any eucalyptus trees growing within 200 feet of my house, they appear to go up like molitov cocktails.
The speed in which these fires travel is amazing, one poor chap shown last night on sky TV could not outrun the fire on his motorcycle and the poor chap paid with his life. Terrbible loss of life

Originally posted by Chadwickus
Hmm so I guess a real situation where one could get some insight into it isn't interesting.

Would it have been more interesting if people were getting killed? Or Marshal law was declared?

Seems like the Aussies are having some rough times lately
all over the continent.

Here is hoping for some relief for all of them.



[edit on 9-2-2009 by Ex_MislTech]

reply to post by Ex_MislTech



Gotta agree with that, the death toll from the bush fires is over 130 now and expected to possibly double.

Even being prepared for these bush fires didn't seem to help most there, the ferocity of the fire was scary.

In Queensland the rain has subsided finally, it will take a long time to rebuild.