2. LESSONS LEARNED FROM PAST NOTABLE DISASTERS AUSTRALIA PART 1: FLOODS Walter Hays, Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction, Vienna, Virginia, USA

3. AUSTRALIA

4. NATURAL HAZARDS THAT HAVE CAUSED DISASTERS IN AUSTRALIA FLOODS CYCLONES EARTHQUAKES WILDFIRES ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE HIGH BENEFIT/COST FOR SAVING LIVES, BUT LOW BEMEFIT/COST FOR PROTECTING PROPERTY GOAL: MOVE PEOPLE OUT OF HARM’S WAY

5. Natural Phenomena that Cause Disasters Planet Earth’s atmospheric- hydrospheric- lithospheric interactions create situations favorable for FLOODS

6. A DISASTER is --- --- the set of failures that overwhelm the capability of a community to respond without external help when three continuums: 1) people, 2) community (i.e., a set of habitats, livelihoods, and social constructs), and 3) complex events (e.g., floods, wildfires,...,) intersect at a point in space and time.

7. Disasters are caused by s ingle- or multiple-event natural hazards that, (for various reasons), cause extreme levels of mortality, morbidity, homelessness, joblessness, economic losses, or environmental impacts.

8. FLOOD HAZARDS

9. FLOOD HAZARDS (AKA POTENTIAL DISASTER AGENTS ) TOO MUCH WATER DISCHARGED WITHIN THE DRAINAGE SYSTEM TO BE ACCOMMODATED NORMALLY IN THE REGIONAL WATER CYCLE EROSION SCOUR MUDFLOWS

10. LOSS OF FUNCTION OF STRUCTURES IN FLOODPLAIN FLOODS INUNDATION INTERACTION WITH HAZARDOUS MATERIALS STRUCTURAL/CONTENTS DAMAGE FROM WATER WATER BORNE DISEASES (HEALTH PROBLEMS) EROSION AND MUDFLOWS CONTAMINATION OF GROUND WATER CAUSES OF RISK CASE HISTORIES

11. AUSTRALIA’S COMMUNITIES DATA BASES AND INFORMATION HAZARDS: GROUND SHAKING GROUND FAILURE SURFACE FAULTING TECTONIC DEFORMATION TSUNAMI RUN UP AFTERSHOCKS HAZARDS INVENTORY AT RISK VULNERABILITY LOCATION FLOOD RISK RISK ACCEPTABLE RISK UNACCEPTABLE RISK FLOOD DISASTER RESILIENCE PREPAREDNESS PROTECTION EARLY WARNING EMERGENCY RESPONSE RECOVERY and RECONSTRUCTION POLICY OPTIONS

12. HIGH POTENTIAL LOSS EXPOSURES IN FLOODS Entire communities; People, property, infra- structure, business enterprise, government centers, crops, wildlife, and natural resources.

13. LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT DISASTER RESILIENCE ALL FLOODS PREPAREDNES FOR THE EXPECTED AND UNEXPEDTED IS ESSENTIAL FOR DISASTER RESILIENCE

14. LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT DISASTER RESILIENCE ALL FLOODS TIMELY EMERGENCY RESPONSE IS ESSENTIAL FOR DISASTER RESILIENCE

15. AUSTRALIA’S WORST FLOODS Look at what happened in 2010-2011?

16. RECORD FLOODING IN AUSTRALIA: NEW SOUTH WALES ROCKHAMPTON TOOWOOMBA BRISBANE DECEMBER 10 – JANUARY 16, 2011

17. 75 % OF QUEENSLAND A DISASTER ZONE

18. DECEMBER STORMS BROUGHT HEAVY RAINFALL: DEC. 17, 2010

19. IMPACTS: GREAT QUEENSLAND FLOODING INUNDATED 22 TOWNS, DISPLACED 200,000, KILLED 35, AND CAUSED LOSSES OF OVER $5 BILLION

20. NEW SOUTH WALES: 45 FLOOD DISASTER ZONES

21. INUNDATED ROADWAYS SHUT DOWN TRUCKS

22. TOWN OF THEODORE: INUNDATED

23. THEODORE’S HOUSES INUNDATED

24. TOWN OF BUNDABERG INUNDATED

26. TOWN OF BUNDABERG: INTERIOR DAMAGE

27. THE SECOND PHASE OF FLOODING HAPPENED IN JANUARY AN AREA OF FLOODING THE SIZE OF FRANCE AND GERMANY (OR, TEXAS AND NEW MEXICO) COMBINED WAS CREATED IN QUEENSLAND

28. ROCKHAMPTON HIT HARD Rockhampton, a town of 77,000 people 370 miles north of Brisbane, lies close to the coast, on the Fitzroy, one of Australia's largest river systems.

29. ROCKHAMPTON ISOLATED All main routes to the south, north and west of the city were cut off by the rising water, rail lines and the airport runways were submerged, and floodwaters stretched for several miles in each direction.

30. ROCKHAMPTON: LIKE AN ISLAND, JANUARY 3, 2011

31. QUEENSLAND: WIDESPREAD IMPACTS Socioeconomic impacts for about 200 thousand people included: industrial slow-down, evacuations, a plague of snakes and crocodiles, and health care problems associated with evacuation and water-borne diseases.

32. FLEEING WITH POSSESSIONS: JANUARY 3, 2011

33. INUNDATED AIRPORT RUNWAYS: JANUARY 3, 2011

34. SANDBAGGING: JANUARY 3, 2011

35. FITZROY RIVER STILL RISING: JANUARY 3, 2011

36. FITZROY RIVER PEAKED AT 9.2 M: JANUARY 6, 2011

37. W ILDLIFE AFFECTED The local wildlife was caught off- guard by the flooding; bewildered and hungry kangaroos moved to high ground, and cattle were left lost and confused by the excessive water that inundated everything.

38. FLOOD WATERS IMPACT COAL INDUSTRY: JAN 7, 2011

39. COAL MINING INFRASTRUCTURE AFFECTED Australia's coal industry faced months of disruption as the result of key rail and road links being washed away during the flooding, and repairs of some infra-structure expected to take a year or more.

40. THE THIRD PHASE OF FLOODING BEGAN WITH A FLASH FLOOD JANUARY 11, 2011

41. FLASH FLOOD IN TOOWOOMBA The flash flood, which brought a one kilometer wide wall of water into Toowoomba, was triggered by a freak storm — with up to 150 millimeters (6 inches) of rain in half an hour.

42. FLASH FLOOD:TOOWOOMBA,

43. FLASH FLOOD BRINGS WALL OF WATER: TOOMOOMBA: JAN 11, 2011

44. IMPACTS Cars were transformed into “boats” and then scrap metal as they floated away; giant metal industrial bins were tossed about as if made of paper; and houses were torn off their foundations.

45. THE FOURTH PHASE OF FLOODING BEGAN IN BRISBANE JANUARY 11 AND FOLLOWING

46. BRISBANE The city is protected by a large dam built upstream after floods devastated the downtown in 1974, but the reservoir was full, so officials had no choice but to release water, which caused flooding before the “FLOOD”.

47. BRISBANE MORE than 50 suburbs were flooded as the Brisbane River rose to 4.5 m or more above flood stage, with some areas being completely inundated.

48. BRISBANE PREPARING FOR FLOODING: JAN 8, 2011

49. BRISBANE: BEFORE FLOODING

50. BRISBANE: AFTER FLOODING

51. BRISBANE FLOODING: ADMIRALTY TOWERS; JAN 11, 2011

52. BRISBANE FLOODING: JAN 11, 2011

54. BRISBANE RIVER CRESTED AT 4.46 M: JAN 12, 2011

55. EMERGENCY SERVICES A difficult situation was made even more so by thunderstorms, high winds, raging rivers, and driving rain that made it very hard for helicopters and boats to reach and rescue flood victims.

56. WATER: URGENT NEEDS The Lockyer Valley Council, west of Brisbane, reported that its town water supply had failed and only hours of reserves remained for some towns

57. LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT DISASTER RESILIENCE ALL FLOODS EARLY WARN- ING (THE ISS) AND EVACU- ATION ARE ESSENTIAL FOR DISASTER RESILIENCE

58. LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT DISASTER RESILIENCE ALL FLOODS RECOVERY AND RECON- STRUCTION USUALLY MEANS STARTING OVER.

59. IT CAN BE DONE! TOWARDS FLOOD DISASTER RESILIENCE, BUT FLOODS KEEP HAPPENING

60. FLOODING IN SOUTHEAST AUSTRALIA: MARCH 1-6, 2012

61. PREPARATION FOR WORST FLOODING SINCE 1974 9,000 people were evacuated after a week of rain and flooding that damaged 1,000 houses Local authorities declared a state of emergency, which gave police and the army more authority to carry out search and rescue ops.

62. The Mummumbidgee River, swollen after 20 cm (8 in) of rainfall, peaked at 10.56 m, just below the height of Walla Walla’s protective levee.