Flood Warning and Damages in Alice Springs: Part 1 Executive Summary. Part 2 Tangible Damages Part 3 Intangible Damages & Emergency Procedures
Handmer, John; Smith, D. I.; Greenaway, Mark
E-Publications; E-Books; PublicationNT; Report ; 53/1989
1989-04-01
Made available via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT).
Date:1989-04
English
Power and Water Authority
Alice Springs
Report ; 53/1989
application/pdf.
Check within Publication or with content Publisher.
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/228902
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/673596
Technical Report WRA89053 Viewed at 03:02:00 on 18/02/2010 Page 19 of 139. I I I I I. I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Documentary sources included ~epcrts on the [~ocd, ~aterial on :ile in a number of organisations and newspapers. I~terviews were administered in four distinct groups: (i) a questionnaire survey of a sample of flooded households (28), flooded businesses (25), and flooded ':Jovernment organisations (8). This deals '.;i:.:.h damage r the pre-flood brochure, and warnings and response; (il) interviews with officials and organisations involved i.n the flood forecasting, warning and emergency response system (7). Some were interviewed on a number of occasions: (iii) interviews with members of the broadcasc media (4); and (i v) interviews \.;i th members of the Aboriginal comffiuni ty, and ';'lith organisations dealing with Aboriginal concerns. There were five formal incerviews and inforreal interviews wi th town camp drN'ellers and member-s of Tangentyere Counci 1 ~ COllU"llents were received from PAWA on the draft :,uestionnaire and survey forms. A copy of the residential form is appended. Note that some interviewees we~e ~embers of more than one group. Completed intervie1;o1$ were analysed manually. Damages were assessed for the residential sector using the p.~UFLOOD procedure, explained be 10\'1, \'1hile estimates for other sectors came directly from interviews. Flooding in .41ice Springs Alice Springs is. act,pidly growing city of some 24,000 people, 10 per ce.nt of whom are Aborigines. It is located in central Australla, where it is the only sizeable settlement. By any standards it is a remote place being abO'lG 1, 500kms from any rna jor urban area. I t is the administrative, service and tourist centre for a vast area. The city straddles the Todd River, which rises on rocky degraded country some 5 hours r-iver travel time not'ch of Alice and vanishes in the dese~t sands southeast of the city. A relatively minor tributary, the Charles River, joins the Todd in the northern part of the city. The river beds are sandy, lightl", timbered and dry, except during floods, and are used as camping areas by Aborigines. ",our c~eeks (drains) feed into the river as it passes through che built-up area. Immediately downstream of the city, the river passes through a narrow gap "Heavitree Gap (Figure 2.1), which causes some obstruction to flood flows. However, the slope of the river bed through Alice is sufficiently steep for the water backup effect to be limited to the area south of Acacia St, 'which is on the southern edge of the built up zone.