Queensland flood disaster live blog

Soames says:

02:41pm | 13/01/11

The death toll as of this moment, is 15. One would expect it to rise,  by the scene at the Grantham bridge, see here, http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/special-reports/horror-at-mass-underwater-grave-in-grantham-lockyer-valley/story-fn7kabp3-1225986689616 . A gruesome and horrific scene.  I pray, as with others, for the souls of the dead, the comfort to grieving relatives and friends, the hope and strength for those anxious souls who don’t know the fate of their loved ones, the courage of volunteer organizations, the Police, who have huge responsibilities, the ADF, and one would particularly thank AM Angus Huston, CDF; and last but not least, one would encourage people with negative or self serving views, to look past their own relative position, in terms of importance.

Mitchell says:

02:59pm | 13/01/11

The people who use this tragedy to score points for their “team” are sick and need help, seriously you all really need therapy, I’m not joking, I’m not speaking against any one side, I’m saying that those who use this for their own political advantage are twisted people who need serious therapy.
People have died, people have listened to the screams of people dying, people have woken up to be told family members have died. Have some compassion, no matter what side of politics you follow these are real people with dozens if not hundreds of people distraught by their deaths. 10 people dying means at least 1000 people suffering.
Is it really worth some pathetic point scoring that you hope to capture?
No one gains from this whether the Gillard can look like like some sort of saviour or Abbott can show exactly what was screwed up about it all.
I wish you would all get some perspective please because I am about to vomit.

kerrie o'rourke says:

05:55pm | 13/01/11

Your comment:
brazil and queensland both live in the tropics and both have severe floods.
is that an environmental or an economic coincidence?

Eno The Wonderdog says:

07:00pm | 13/01/11

Richard - think of the national debt as your credit card - as long as you can afford to pay it off you are quite rightly able to use that card when something but like a global financial trainwreck or heaven help us - a rainy day comes along. Eternal surpluses means they are taking more than they need of my money & I disagree with that strongly. Particularly in this situation.

Mitchell if you’re going to go onto what is mainly a political blog and expect people not to be discussing the pollies you’ve lost it - perhaps the Salvos site would be more to your taste.

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George Bush says:

11:21pm | 15/01/11

Events such as this provide us with a clear warning. If we as the most intelligent and most prolific species to inhabit this magnificent earth choose to sustain our survival and the survival of all other species then we must re-evaluate our philosophies for co inhabitation. Regardless of one’s position on climate change and global warming and all the other such theories one thing is clear. Our species is far too prolific and produces far too much damaging effects to the world that sustains us and every other species. For the most intelligent species to reach populations and levels of destruction similar to ants and flies is unacceptable and unsustainable. We can do much better. We must do much better of all species are ultimately doomed.
The obvious questions about the current world flooding include;
1.  Has manipulation of natural waterways contributed?
2.  Does the facility of dams provide an equal and opposite force to control nature?
3.  Has our government had access to sufficient information to anticipate such an event?
4.  Has the response of our government been adequate?
My answers
1.  Obviously the answer is yes. However if we are to support population growth this is to a large extent unavoidable.
2.  No dam of any size will ever address the full force of nature if it is exerted.
3.  Australia is a nation adjacent to the equator and as such natural events such as this have been occurring for millennia. Australia has an annual expense to it’s population in the order of $11B for local government wages alone and more for state government and more for national government. And this is only the wages costs. This represents a disproportional percentage of our GDP. Surely with this level of cost Australian’s are entitled to expect more for our money.
4.  I must highly commend the facility provided by the multinational company Google. You can view the facility provided by this company on the following site; http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/queensland_floods.html. However we must ask why a private facility that is not even directly related to this nation is providing a far superior information service than our very expensive government.
My conclusions
1.  I implore all Australians to realise we must be humble and responsible citizens of the world before we represent a nation or religion or any other facility. The earth is our master and it must be respected.
2.  We must live with nature and not continue with these feeble attempts to dictate to nature.
3.  Our current government is far less effective and far more dishonest than we have ever seen in this nation. Corruption and incompetence is ubiquitous. We allow pathetic and irresponsible parties to enjoy INSULATION at the expense of DEATH for innocent citizens.
4.  The immediate solutions for the current disaster are obvious and our nation has the capacity to address them. This is what our military facilities should be used for. We must ask why an adequate response has not been provided and we must ask what corrective action through transparent studies will be made to prevent an entirely predictable disaster of this nature occurring again. Unfortunately all Australians know what will result and as such must accept responsibility for future disasters if they do not take action.

Dale says:

05:36pm | 16/01/11

If you have anything you can giveaway to flood victims or if you can help flood victims rebuild their homes and businesses, please post on http://www.rebuildqueensland.com

Andrew Gerard says:

05:19pm | 22/01/11

Respective State Governments are remitted $millions that is collect by insurers in the form of Stamp Duty. Perhaps the government need to take a hard look at their spending and actually setting aside a reserve for times of natianal catastrophe such as floods where unfortunate people have “not” read the documentation sent to them with a 21 day cooling off period in the event the cover does not suit. Amazing how people will also pay $hundreds to a conveyancer to purchase the property and yet will not spend time reading the contract that protects the physical asset.

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Kate says:

05:38pm | 23/07/11

Research shows that almost 100% of all basements will suffer some form of basement flooding
at some point in their existence.  “Almost 100%” translates into “it’s certain”.  It makes sense, too, because basements are the single lowest location in any structure, and excess water is always going to flow downhill.

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