Floods in Australia

[Sundae]

Floods North of Sydney have already resulted in 9 deaths and 5,000 people are being evacuated after a weekend of storms. From The Independent

I know America is used to dramatic weather conditions, but this has been big news in Britain as many people have families there (and we're certainly not used to this kind of devastation).

Precis:

Nine killed and 5,000 evacuated as storms flood eastern Australia
Published: 11 June 2007

Officials urged thousands of Australians to flee their homes as rising floodwaters from three days of wild weather threatened to wash away their homes.

Nine people have been killed since the storms began Friday near the port city of Newcastle, around 140 kilometers (90 miles) north of Sydney. The unusually strong winds and sea swell were also blamed for pushing a massive coal freighter onto a nearby sand bank, prompting fears of a major oil and fuel spill.

At the peak of Friday's wild weather, five members of the same family were swept to their deaths when a section of highway collapsed under their car, plunging them into a swollen creek.

Around 5,000 people in the towns of Maitland and Singleton were ordered to leave their homes late Sunday, as the state's emergency coordinator warned the nearby Hunter River could rise more than 11 meters (36.09 feet) above its normal height, breaching levees and flooding neighborhoods.

The storms have also created havoc for utilities. More than 100,000 homes from northern Sydney to the Hunter Valley, near Newcastle, were without power Sunday.

Officials warned it could be days before the electricity is restored.

"Never before has our electricity network sustained such severe damage across such a widespread area," said Geoff Lilliss, an executive with power supplier, Energy Australia. "The extreme weather over the last few days has taken a heavy toll."

Aussie posters are in my thoughts, even if it's nowhere near you geographically.

[Hagar]

Thanks SG.

We toured that region last year at Easter. It was very, very dry.

The pictures of the washout where the family was killed were awful.

[Aliantha]

Over here, it never rains but it pours. The biggest problem with this rain is that it's come in such a torrent after such dry. That means the water can't soak into the ground, so there's a larger amount of run-off. This of course contributes to the floods being even worse.

It's terrible that people have lost their lives, but it was also inevitable. Really though, I wonder how many people have lost their lives due to the drought? I'd say there would have been quite a number of primary producers who topped themselves because they lost everything they owned.

The floods are only half the story though. Because of the high seas, there is a massive coal ship stranded on a Newcastle beach. They think the hull has a crack in it, so we could have an environmental disaster on our hands if the recovery isn't successful.

Me and Hagar are a long way from the floods. We're still waiting for our turn.

[xoxoxoBruce]

When weather like that is extremely rare, people tend to make poor choices when it does come. They just don't have the experience to know how to avoid danger.