Cyclone Debbie loss exceeds AUS$1.4bn
Photo: Yellen
Cyclone Debbie loss exceeds AUS$1.4bn
The insurance and reinsurance industry loss from the impact of Cyclone Debbie has now passed AUS$1.4 billion (US$1.1bn) from 66,000 claims, prompting the Senate Standing Committee on Economics to back the Insurance Council of Australia’s (ICA) call for AUS$200 million (US$157mn) a year to be invested in natural disaster mitigation…
Time to recognize the basic flaw in our whole approach to flood prevention
A storm comes. The city floods, yet again. And so we revert to form, squabble angrily in public forums and look for scapegoats.
Global warming’s to blame. No, it’s Sewerage & Water Board honcho Joe Becker with his lies about pump capacity. No, the rainfall amounts were simply extraordinary — no system could keep up with them. The maintenance budget is underfunded. Catch basins weren’t cleaned. Mayor Landrieu should have rushed back more quickly from his conference in Aspen. To do what? Bail out the city with a bucket?
Get used to it, folks. This is the new normal. (Lying public officials included? I’ll come back to that.)
Half the city is below sea level. And evidently one symptom of the onrushing climate change some still deny is the gathering frequency of super-intense rainfall events. Ten inches in a matter of hours. Does that excuse the negligence of the officials paid to keep an intricate pump system at peak efficiency? Hardly. The intensity of the rainfall is the reason why Saturday’s failure — a Sewerage & Water Board asleep at the switch — is utterly inexcusable. Top that off with the…
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