News Queensland flooding crisis.

[Kyle]

Hurricanes *have* been known to spawn tornadoes, albeit often weak. Katrina spawned 53. Ivan in 2004 spawned something like 119.

Correct

 

[tblaxland]

Meanwhile, at the other end of the country: 'Heartbreaking' fire leaves scores homeless

The fire, in the bush-fringed Perth suburbs of Kelmscott and Roleystone, south-east of Perth, has now destroyed 68 houses and damaged 32 others.

Including the homes of two of the volunteer firefighters, as I understand it

Time for some poetry, I think...

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold.

 

[tblaxland]

La Nina the strongest in almost a century

The weather bureau says the La Nina pattern affecting Australia is the strongest since 1917.

 

[Linguofreak]

This looks rather serious, but I've only heard about it because a family member linked me to it. It's not really making the news on this side of the world.

Allegedly, the operators of the Wivenhoe Dam made up rainfall numbers to excuse their release of water during the floods. They had apparently been storing too much water prior to the floods, and then were forced to make large releases to keep things under control.

Can any of our Australian members comment on this?

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...vented-rain-data/story-e6frg6nf-1226028379093

 

[tl8]

This looks rather serious, but I've only heard about it because a family member linked me to it. It's not really making the news on this side of the world.

Allegedly, the operators of the Wivenhoe Dam made up rainfall numbers to excuse their release of water during the floods. They had apparently been storing too much water prior to the floods, and then were forced to make large releases to keep things under control.

Can any of our Australian members comment on this?

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...vented-rain-data/story-e6frg6nf-1226028379093

Partial Truth.

Wivenhoe Dam was constructed after the '74 flood to provide flood mitigation. As such it has been designed to hold up to 125% more water on top of 100% full for general purpose.

When the dam was filled in late 2010 the operators investigated if they should release water outside of the laws (Acts) that governed the dame.

The amount ranged from 5-50%. They decided that in the end 5% was the best and subsequently it was decided that it would not make a big difference. So they didn't release any extra water.

Wivenhoe was at 192% at the peak of the flood.

Note: Wivenhoe has nothing to do with Toowoomba, Grantham or Ipswich floods which are all up stream of the dam (in simple terms)

I will explain more latter, but in short, the operators were following the law and were in direct contact with the disaster management team.

Anyway The Australian is not a very good newspaper

 

[Linguofreak]

Anyway The Australian is not a very good newspaper

OK, thanks. I was wondering how reliable the source was.

 

[tl8]

OK, thanks. I was wondering how reliable the source was.

The overall source is probably true. But predicting rainfall has always been hard.

You need to remember we were in a very big drought 4 years ago. There was a very real chance that we would run out of water. So dam operators are going to be reluctant to release water if they don't have too. (Damned if you do, damned if you don't)

 

[tl8]

For those who are still interested. (/me sees the tumble weed tumble past :tumbleweed

The interim report from the inquiry has been released. I don't know what it contains other than what the media said (Which means nothing) so you will have to read it all yourself.

Full report 11MB

Chapters only

If you find anything interest, post it and I can try to add some commentary...

 

[tl8]

Final Post

The full flood report has now been released and as such I think it is appropriate to conclude this thread formally.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3550991/Queensland-Floods-Commission-of-Inquiry-Final-report.pdf

I would expect most recommendations will be adopted.

This is the monument in Toowoomba (Where I live). It is in one of the locations where you saw some of the images on the news (One is on it).