Thousands Free Australia Storm

The Toronto Star
May 22, 2009


Home evacuation occurred today in Sydney for thousands of citizens as torrential rains and stormy winds viciously attacked Australia's east coast. This severe weather has pounded the region for the past few days, and has caused great flooding in the area and in turn the closing of hundreds of schools in the area. There have also been reports of one man dead in the Surfers Paradise in Queensland state on Wednesday. A sheet of metal came crashing through his office window, having been torn off a nearby building. The government of New South Wales officially declared this area as a disaster zone, after hundreds of schools were closed today. An evacuation order of 5,000 from the city of Lismore (in northern New South Wales) from the State Emergency Service was issued today, after the city's river threatened to overflow and flood the area. Another evacuation order was issued today in Grafton, a town of 9,000, as officials expect the town to be inundated overnight by an overflowing river. The emergency service in this state said that 15 flood rescues had been conducted. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured. Nearly 25 centimeters of rain fell over a 39-hour period in the area, reported the Burea of Metorology. Severe weather warnings have been in place for the region, as more rain and high winds are expected later Friday with the storm moving south along the east coast. Farther north, in Queensland, residents of the area were forced to cope with and make an attempt to fix any damages suffered after the intense few days of severe stormy weather. Many communities were flooded because of the storm, and the region was littered with "downed trees and debris".

The effects that a storm such as this has on a community and its surrounding area is truly catastrophic. A spokesman for the Australian State Emergency Service said "There would be thousands of hectares of the coastal plains under water at the moment. We have got seven or eight rivers involved at the moment." (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2009/200905/20090524/article_401913.htm) Over 20,000 Australians had been cut-off from communication and access to Emergency Services, according to many news reports. This incident underscores the fragility of life in the face of natural disaster. It also shows the strength of human character in overcoming these forces. I firmly believe that the work of the Emergency State Service has been exemplary in such tough situations, and has limited the number of lives lost quite significantly. One need only look back at the time of flooding in Louisiana at the time of Hurricane Katrina to learn the lessons needed to survive such a storm. In my view, the Australian Emergency response to this disaster has been much more efficient and timely than the one the world saw in America at the time of Hurricane Katrina.