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 59 of 139. :ne~r ~ela~lVes; and groups who are betwee~ town camps. The last group would ~nclude those who have moved because of a jeath :n shei:- ca~p, but who ~ave yet :0 f~~d space in ~Dother :ow~ camp. (Moving to another area because of the jeath of one's kin ':'s common in ?.borigir.al ::'...11ture). ImpOrtantly for this s~udy, the =iver bed is alse home to 20me people who have houses in town camps jut have left them t8 avoi~ heavy drinking or offensive behaviour by other camp ~embers Or visitors. Disturbing behaviour is a common problem for campers in Alice Spri~gs and elsewhere (Collman, 1988; Ross, 1987). The river bed camps a~e made up p~edominantly of older people who keep all their personal ::elo"gi:",gs (blar,;:ets, pots, a"d clothes) ''',ch there.. Tr.e ~~original Congress es~imates t~at there are up to 200 rlver bed carpers in che Alice Spri"gs regio~. Flooding and Aborigines T:-aditional A.boriginal l.ifestyle demands close oDserva.:'J.on of environmencal indicators. So ic is qui:.e logical that flooding along the Todd River has rarely ca.C(en A.bor:'gines by surprise. The floods under study appear to be an exception. However, wate= from the Todd is by no means the only way that to,.;n camps can be flooded as show:! bel:y,; in trFlood c::'arr.age ::.n che Aboriginal com:nunity". <:'2t. there :..s no doub-c. eha:: .!J:Jorigines as a g=oup a::-e pa::-ticula::-ly seve=ely affected by flooding. Ma~y campl~g a::-eas and some dwellings are inundated, and the acco~panying bad weacher forces people to c~owd into the ~emai:l.i~g j~elli"gs. C!early, flash flooding poses safety problems ~or those camping in river beds, who may also lose their 90ssessions. Flooding and heavy =ain makes food difficult to obtain (because of reduced access) and cook, ~or town campers leading to reliance on support organisations for :-:elp. Aboriginal organisations are the pre~erred sources of assistance. During and immediately after flooding Co~gress :=ie5 to run a I'SOUp kitchen", but was unable to i~ 1988 because of the lack of warning and access d~fficult.ies, and rangencyere Council attempted to ensure that peop!e we~e evacuated from hazardous areas. INTANGIBLE DAMAGES The Background to Damage Estimation =100d da~ages are classified into direct a~d i:l.direct losses; direct damages result from contact ~ith flood water while indirect losses are the resGlt of dis~u?t!on or stress Induced by the ~looding. These ca~egories are in t~rn dlvided into tangible and intangible losses on the basis of how the loss is conventionally exp~essed. Tangible losses, as covered in ?art 2, cover items normally valued in dollars; intangibles a~e those items not ~ormally valued in I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I