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 63 of 139. 12 "I felt. J.seless, upset II II T :,..;as "lery frlg.-:.:.e:-:.ed, my a::--:j::-i:.:"'s ~as flared up, and I feel slck -:::inking of :.::e ::"osses tr II :.:pset, shocked II "when it rai~s we get ':- are f :J 11 y" . ~itter~ and ~atch the river -' " :n considering the ixportance ~f these com~ents, we should bear i~ mi~d that they were made two to four months after the flood. Clearly, che e'lent had a lasti~g impact on some people. Interviewees ~ere a::"so asked to indicate w~at the wors~ thing abou~ the f:ood was. ThIS might i~dicate areas of intangible loss such as gersc~al ~emorabilia. Eowever, mOSt respo~dents si~p:y ~entioned the mess and targlble damages, crlike Sydney where many people com~ented on the suddenness of :he flood. Th~ee (of 28) ~espo~dencs 'Dec i '=' cal; v ~ontl' oned t~o. 1 oss ~f 1; c e as -"e "o~s- as~e~" ..::>. _.;.._ _.~ I~\__ 1:,-" _ ',-, __ .l.. '-._ tI _.... ::-' -..." .... , and four mentioned emotiona~ asoects such as not know~ng what was goi~g to happen and fe~li~g helpless. It is wort~ noting that du~i~g ~he field vis~=s o~~e= people men~ioned that they were particularly concerned that the floods and subsequent med:a discussion has :nc~eased rac:al ~ension in the to'..;n. The rela~ively small impac= of the flood, and ~he fact that some people w~o were nea~ly ~lcaded found ~he event "exciting" is undoubtedl~ partly a result of che very shallow flooding expertenced in ~own and its occurrence durlng daylight. Overfloor flooding was uncom~on and was only a few centimetres deep in 80S~ cases. Flood damage in the Aboriginal community ANUF~OOD is was not used for es~~mat:ng flood damage to aboriginal ~ousing. As set out lr. Section 1, information was collected ~hrouch d~scussions wi:h ~eoresentatives of " . . b..boriginal organisations ':"0 Alice Sp:-ings and d~ring viSits to the town camps. Town Camps Town camps 1:1 :he v~cin~ty of Alice Springs were affected by floodwater from a variety of sou:-ces and in a variety of 'days. There are over 2000 Aborigines in and around Alice SDr1~as. A ma~ority live in town ca~os where the a~com~odatlon ~onsi~ts of different :~ges and standards of hous':":1g. ":';--:e fo:10' . .;ing list surr~'":lar:'ses t~e situation at each camp. Tne numbers 20cate t~e ca~ps on ?igure 3.2. I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I