Disasters

What happened
Early this year, in the middle of the wettest La Nina summer in 40 years, a vast swathe of south-east Australia went underwater. Dozens of towns and larger centres were inundated in Victoria, Queensland and to a lesser extent New South Wales. At least 35 lives were lost in Queensland.

The flooding came in several waves. Large areas of regional Qld were inundated in December 2010, from the Darling Downs to the Burnett and beyond. When the second wave came in early January, it came even harder and faster, with devastating results.

The Toowoomba flash flood was the moment this event turned from a slow inundation best viewed from choppers to an outright disaster where destruction was both brutal and swift. The floodwaters cascaded from the crest of the Great Divide into the Lockyer Valley, where the impact on towns like Grantham was beyond belief.

Continue reading "Biggest moments of 2011 #2 Water, water everywhere" »

What happened
On September 4 last year, Christchurch was struck by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake which caused widespread damage but no fatalities. The quake that shook the city in February this year was of a lesser magnitude, at 6.3, but it had far more dire consequences.

The quake struck early afternoon local time. It was morning here in Australia and The Punch team remembers watching the scenes of horror unfold on the multiple TV monitors in our office. The quake exacerbated much of the damage done by the previous one. In total, 181 were killed.

You could tell things were bad when you saw the severe damage to Christchurch’s signature building, the 19th century cathedral in the main city square. But the real devastation happened both in the suburbs and at other buildings in the city – in particular the Canterbury Television Building, where over half the deaths occurred.

Continue reading "Biggest moments of 2011 #12 Christchurch crumbles" »

The crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station has been unfolding for about a week. The on-site situation remains extremely serious, with glimmers of hope being shrouded by a shadow of deep uncertainty.

If you’ve not been following the situation on BraveNewClimate, please visit the site, which contains assumed knowledge for understanding the rest of this post.

As predicted, attention over the last couple of days has focused on the critical situation with the ponds used for temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel at the individual reactor units, before it is moved to a centralised facility on site. Although this old fuel has lost much of its original radioactivity, the decline is exponential, which means that thermal energy must continue to be dissipated for months.

Continue reading "Fukushima: Situation critical, information scarce" »

With the fate of the proposed flood levy hanging in the balance as we await the outcome of negotiations between Senator Nick Xenophon and the Federal Government, it‘s timely to have a close look at the whole issue of disaster insurance and the insurance industry generally.

A sad reality emerging from this summer’s national disasters is that not only have we been as a nation generally under-insured for natural disasters, but more significantly for consumers the insurance companies are basically a law unto themselves when it comes to paying out on insurance contracts.

As anyone who has tried to take on an insurance company knows all too well, the legal cards are stacked in the company’s favour.

Continue reading "Let’s get medieval on insurance company’s arses" »

Yesterday, the Twittersphere erupted after Penbo had a crack at Jonathan Green, who had had a crack at media coverage of disaster. Here, Natalie Savino gives us her take on disaster coverage.

There’s no doubt the earthquake in Christchurch was devastating. Between unthinkable acts of humanity such as those of September 11 and the ruthless unleashing of Mother Nature, we have, as a society, been exposed to some horrific sights and sounds on our screens.

This week’s earthquake, last month’s floods, the bushfires, and the violent protests in the Middle East are just a few examples.

What worries me most is the amount of detail we are shown. Sitting at the dinner table after the earthquake, we were greeted with shocking images of men with bloodied faces, women on the ground in agony, and others being carried away on stretchers. Not to mention the voiceovers which liken events to “that of a war zone”. But unlike the film classifications that come with box office features, we were not warned of what was to come – in fact, we didn’t have a choice between the seemingly M15+ news and its milder G rated fellows.

Continue reading "Disaster coverage: When is enough enough?" »

An old lady rang Tony Delroy’s late-night program on ABC Radio after midnight on Tuesday with a complaint. She was a contestant in his popular quiz, and before she tried to answer a general knowledge question, she chatted with Delroy about how fed up she was with the saturation coverage the Christchurch earthquake was receiving.

She said she couldn’t believe that most of the free to air television stations had interrupted their regular programming to run continuous coverage of this event. She was upset that her usual soaps and game shows weren’t on. It’s probably not as upsetting as being in a massive earthquake, but there you go.

It struck me as a selfish and heartless complaint. But perhaps this old lady had an acutely-developed sense of that natural human repulsion towards tragedy.

Continue reading "The media takes no joy from tragedy" »

These past two days I’ve been gazing at my fellow office workers and wondering: If an earthquake struck here, who would be a hero? Who would run back into the crumbling building for a mate, who would risk their life for another?

I had imagined that, of the hundreds of people, a few would shine.

Maybe that chick over there that always looks calm and competent. Maybe not that bloke who can never manage eye contact.

I also wondered what I would do and had a terrifying thought that I would be a panicker, a useless screamer (or swearer, more likely) who only contributed to the chaos.

But, as it turns out, more people are everyday heroes than I thought.

Continue reading "Humanity. Much better than expected." »

This summer of Australian natural disasters has been book-ended by two New Zealand disasters, both of which claimed more lives than all of the Australian weather-related calamities put together.

In late November, the Pike River mine blast claimed 29 victims. Various Australian weather events – most notably the SE Queensland floods – then claimed around 25 lives, while the death toll continues to rise rapidly from yesterday’s devastating Christchurch earthquake. At last count it was 65 and early morning reports suggest this could reach as high as 200.

There are no lessons in all of this, except one. New Zealand’s pain is our pain. And ours is theirs.

Continue reading "100 per cent pure pain, 100 per cent pure mateship" »

Christchurch, on New Zealand’s South Island, has been struck by a second major earthquake in six months. Full coverage with live updates and streaming video is available here

At this stage, damage appears far worse – and there are certainly more casualties, including fatalities – than the 7.1 magnitude September 2010 quake, even though this one was “only” magnitude 6.3.

Phone lines to Christchurch are currently working, but extremely congested. Emergency services are asking that people only ring the area for emergency purposes, so you’ll excuse us for failing to get immediate on-the-ground comment.

Continue reading "Christchurch: a great city, a tragic tragic day" »

Commercial television’s breakfast programs aren’t for everyone. It’s not compulsory to watch and there are plenty of alternatives.

But the facts are that they connect with their viewers in a more powerful way than their traditional television news formats.

Stop. Don’t start commenting yet. Hear me out and then go your hardest… I’ve broad shoulders (and a sense of humour, check out the clip above).

Continue reading "Like it or not, breakfast TV has an important role" »

It warms my heart to think of all the Australians donating cash to Queensland flood victims. 

What frightens the crap out of me is all those who’d rather give Aunt Beryl’s chest of drawers, the toaster with only one grill functioning, the shorts that Jayden grew out of and the packet of Sao biscuits that lay dormant at the back of the pantry.

As amazing as Anna Bligh has been this week, I’m sure there’s probably one thing she desperately wishes she could say but can’t.

Continue reading "Don’t crush Queensland with kindness" »

Every now and again a film comes along that defies your expectations, raises the bar for all film-makers working in the genre, and leaves you feeling much much better than when you went in.  When that happens you feel blessed; films that hit the mark like that come along so rarely they deserve your respect, your money and, dare I say it, your love.

I am an unashamed fan of disaster movies; they capture the essence of what is important about humanity and remind us that we people are one with nature and not apart from nature.  The first genuine disaster movie was Deluge, made in 1933 in which a paper model of NYC, and most especially the Statue of Liberty, is destroyed by a tsunami (Roland Emmerich referenced this in The Day After Tomorrow). Like all such films to follow it concerned the struggle of a good, honest working man, trying to protect his loved ones in the face of almost insurmountable odds.

Disaster films tend to introduce a new kind of special effect to the audience.  The Poseidon Adventure gave us the first realistic depiction of a capsised boat (though if you watch the capsising scene frame-by-frame you can actually see the actors pulling the table-cloths off the tables as they run past them).  The Towering Inferno was the first to show fire in reasonable proportion to the building (watch old episodes of The Thunderbirds  to see the opposite of this, where flames and water give away the scale of the models to humourous affect.)  Earthquake in 1974 introduced Sensurround to the jaded masses and The Swarm in 1978 (I saw it with my Mum) gave us some pretty convincing bee-clouds.

Continue reading "Best apocalypse I’ve ever had" »

It’s impossible not to feel for the victims of all three disasters that have struck the South Pacific and Asian region this week. 

Did you see Kerrie Ritchie’s piece in Samoa on the 7:30 Report last night? 

I hope I never know how it feels to be the Melbourne mother, picking through the rubble who lost her mother, twin girls and a newborn baby all in a matter of seconds.

Continue reading "Disaster relief: how you can help" »

Thousands of people are feared dead after two earthquakes in Sumatra, Indonesia. Our live coverage of the latest developments, with links to coverage around the web is over the jump.

Continue reading "Live news blog: Sumatra earthquake" »