John Linton ....put the minor problems we think are difficult in to perspective.....but apparently not to everyone. The first indication of how the unprecedented floods will affect such mundane services such as internet services was this report about Vodafone's issues yesterday:
http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/373016/update_vodafone_queensland_network_restored_within_hours/
but the wider issues have now begun with the announcement that electricity was shut off to parts of the Brisbane CBD at 7 am this morning which will seriously test the diesel generating capacities of several of Brisbane's data centres which are mainly located close to the river in Eagle Street and Queen Street. In Exetel's case the cut in electricity will, sooner or later, affect all of our Queensland customers (residential and corporate). So while the major aspect of this flooding is the property devastation and personal tragedy of family deaths with the subsequent destruction of infrastructures on which whole communities depend and threaten the possible permanent loss of some of those the inability for many commercial enterprises outside the flood affected areas to operate will comprise an unknown amount of damage.
How long all this destruction will continue is obviously unknown and watching the TV news only indicates that the opinions being expressed by the people most closely involved indicate that they have no sensible estimates of either the scope or the time frames that may be required to deal with the different levels of devastation. So no comments of mine or perhaps anyone else, no matter how deeply informed, are of any value right now and I will stop there with the exception of wondering, one more time, why the human race - since events have been recorded (where records have survived) - why do people continue to build in areas where recent history (let alone longer history) indicates that floods, or bush fires or, in the case of rural areas - droughts are a regular occurrence? The triumph of hope over experience?
The extraordinary weather events in Northern Europe and much of the North East of the USA over the last month (which we tend to only hear about in terms of airport closures and flight delays) or the even more sparsely reported devastating floods in Pakistan and Northern India and China indicate just how dependent the whole world has become on 'basics' continuing to provide services. When roads become closed, trains no longer run and flights no longer take off and even all the appliances requiring electricity no longer work (one of the ditzes on the ABC news has just said that people should "get on line or turn on their radio" to check on where the power cuts are in Brisbane) it becomes obvious that weather is something that more people need to pay attention to when deciding where to live or where to locate a business or school. The Haitian earthquake (remember that? - 200,000 people killed - 1.9 million homeless - a 'government' totally unable to do anything about anything)..... Maybe the Amish are right after all.
These terrible floods are truly awful for the people directly affected and no TV 'news' video let alone the accompanying facile comments by TV 'commentators' can begin to convey the devastating effects on the individuals concerned. But, realise it or not, every Australian is going to be directly affected, as part of the community that is Australia, by these personal tragedies. It won't be just the waste of tax payers dollars spent on rebuilding infrastructures that have been destroyed (on the same sites that the next flood will destroy) or the tax payer dollars that will have to be spent supporting the people affected nor even the lack of produce that will not find its way to market. It will be the countless effects of, for a few examples, the hundreds of non-Queensland truckies whose rigs are marooned and whose income has evaporated and the hotel, motels and other facilities that will have no tourists/visitors/business people paying money into their communities and even providers of services that depend on telephone lines and electricity whose customers now have neither....and in the case of telephone lines may well not have any facilities for an unknown amount of time....not to mention the painful deaths of the tens of thousands of animals, domestic and wild, for whom no resources are available to help.
Every Australian will be negatively affected by the events in Queensland - it's only a question of just how badly.
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