Grist: What happened in Brisbane could happen to us

[marmar]

What happened in Brisbane could happen to us
by Sarah Goodyear

13 Jan 2011 11:51 AM


Look at the images of the city of Brisbane underwater. Go ahead, look at them. Because even though Brisbane is on the other side of the planet from the United States, it is a city very much like many American cities -- sprawling, car-dependent, suburbanized, with a high percentage of detached homes. And sadly vulnerable to an extreme weather event like this one.

Brisbane is, in fact, something like Nashville, Tenn. That river city suffered its own catastrophic flooding in May of 2010 -- an event that was notoriously ignored by a media fixated on the Deepwater Horizon spill and the attempted car-bombing in Times Square. So seeing SUVs submerged in suburban Brisbane is easier for Americans to relate to than, say, the scene unfolding now in the mountain towns of Brazil, where hundreds were killed by floods over the last few days.

Here's one reason it's important for us to look these catastrophes in the face and realize that they can happen to us: They reveal how weak our systems are. All of our modern sophistication, our gadgets, our smart cars and phones and grids, can be knocked out by an extreme weather event. And even people who don't believe those natural disasters are becoming more frequent because of human action have to deal with the reality of them when they do happen.

As Dan Hill wrote in the riveting post on City of Sound about living through the flood:

"Natural disaster" seems the wrong terminology, actually. As far as I can see, nature is having a fine old time. Ducks, toads, insects, snakes, cockroaches, turtles -- all are thriving. The water, so foreign to this terrain in recent years, is gulped greedily by the undergrowth. I've never seen Brisbane so green, so tropical. So it's slightly solipsistic of us to describe it in terms like "disaster." It's only our inflexible, non-adaptive infrastructure that can't cope with this.

And the infrastructure is failing for sure. Everything feels very contingent, very fragile. I spend a fair amount of time helping design various flavours of "resilient urbanism" in cities around the place, and it's clear that this is not at all resilient.

If you were to anthropomorphize the flood, you might say it is taking a perverse pleasure in pointing out just where the shiny, mighty city is weakest. Water poured into a seven-story hole in the central business district -- a hole that was the foundation for a massive project never built because of the global economic crisis. It threatened to undermine a major city boulevard. Even as the floodwaters recede, the city's downtown remains closed.

Cars in Toowoomba, 80 miles inland from Brisbane, were swept up from their orderly rows in parking lots and dumped downstream in random piles. People circled around them, taking pictures of the eerie sight. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.grist.org/article/2011-01-13-what-happened-in-brisbane-could-happen-to-us

[luvspeas]

1. It did happen here...

http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/archives/2008/06/houstons_top_fi_1.html

I lived through it.

[Richard D]

2. I recall . . .

. . . a few years ago a hurricane was feared to be heading towards Los Angeles. I don't recall exactly what was predicted to happen if it hit, but it was going to be way more rain in 24 hours than L.A. gets in a year or two. I can't even imagine what would have happened had that occurred.

[Jokinomx]

3. I couldn't agree more....a few years ago the Mississippi River basin became

a "disaster" area. Experts said it was a once in 500 year event. Whole towns were underwater and some were never repopulated.

I have always said... these are only disasters because we have too many people on the planet and don't have the flexibility to handle such events.

500 years ago..the Native Americans would have just packed up their belongings and walked to higher ground.

No disaster.

We of course don't care about population. We need to keep our society GROWING so we can keep everyone working.

It's not going to get easier to survive such events... as our population continues to grow ... the chances of another "disaster" is right around the bend.

My humble opinion

Peace.

[treestar]

4. There are floods in many places

I would think Australia might be a lot drier though and that would have an effect when there is a surplus of rain.

Just depends on the area.

The town of Harper's Ferry was very flood susceptible due to being at the confluence of two rivers.