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 9 of 139. by more tha~ o~e fa~ily. ("Tcw~ camp" is a term given to an .;:...borig:"nal housing or c2.:-p:"ng site in or near a town) . ~he Todd River bej is used as a camping area by people ~ho do ~ot have a~ esta~~ished place to stay. T~is ~ncludes: .~..bo::-i<;ina2. ~'e:?le '.risiting the town t...rno ;;'ave no kin in Alice Spri~gs; v:sitors whose kin have no room for t~eir ~elatives; and gr:~ps w~o are between town camps. The river bed ca~ps are made up predominantly of older people who keep all their pers:~al belongings (blankets, pots, a~d ,":lothes) wit:-. t:--,em. ':'he Abori:;inal Congress estircates t:..,at there are UD ~o 200 rive= bed campers in ~he Alice Spri~gs region. ~ 7 d' . ,. ., ['_00 lng ano .~..JJorJ.qlnes Traditional P~origi~al ~::estyle demands close observation of enviro~me~tal :~dica::Jrs. So it is quite logical tha: floodi~g alo~g the Tode ?iver has rarely taken P~origines by surprIse. The fleods u~jer study appear to be an exception. However, wate::- ~rcm the :odd is by no means the only way that town camps ca~ be :cooded as shown in Part 3. Yet there is no do~:::'t tha-c .~origines as a grot:p a:::-e particularly severely affected by flooding. Many camping ~reas and some dwellings are inundated, and the accompanying b d ~h ~ . d . h " a wea~ .er ~orces peop_e to crow lnto t e remalnlng dwellings. Clear:y, f:as~ flooding poses safety p~oblems for those camping in ~iver beds, who may also lose thei~ possessions. Results Damages The Alice Spcings flood ~f Easter 1988 resulted in substantial tangible anc intangible damages. The non.~original and P~original losses are reported separately. Over 200 dwellings ane so:ne 35 commercial enterpr:'ses experienced overfloor f:~oding or severe damage from overground inundation. :n add:'sion, many roads and other infrastructu::-e were dama~ed. The resident:'al ta~gible damage is estimated as $1,730,000 and thae for :he cO:Tmercial sector as $960,000. Including addi-cio~al da~age to infrastructure within the area of the study, the 2est es:imate for combined damage IS 53,461,000. These values do ~ot include flood damage to property and facillties =aused by the same event outside the city of Alice Spri~gs. :n addltion, Alice Springs also experie~ced extensive w~~d damage and losses dee to the surcharqe of the ~=ban t~ainaae system. These have not generaliy been included excepE where such losses were withln I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I