Flooding In Australia - Essay Example

Among the various factors that intensified the flood, human interference with the nature evidently played the major role. This paper will critically evaluate the social impacts of the catastrophe with intent to point out the inevitability of improved emergency response practices in Australia. Societal issues The BBC News reports that the flooding catastrophe in Australia has affected almost 200,000 people. According to the report, there were 10 people dead and more than 70 missing in Toowoomba.

Officials estimated that around 6500 to 9000 homes and businesses are destroyed by flood in Queensland. In addition, large numbers of people have been evacuated (BBC News). Although, the disaster raised numerous issues across several parts of the country, it mostly affected Brisbane, Lockyer Valley, and Queensland. In order to escape from the severe blow, many residents clung to trees and roofs of buildings. To be specific with mental health issues, the disaster created high rates of anxiety and depression among the victims that resulted in severe psychological abnormalities.

Many people could not recover from the disaster shock for months; children were the most affected category. The intensity of the disaster partially destroyed the communication facilities as well as electricity in the affected region. Electricity in Brisbane’s central business district was shut off and this situation affected 100,000 homes and businesses. Displacement was another frustrating problem since the emergency response operations scattered the victims across different regions. Even the members of same families were separated from one another and that added to the misery.

A large number of animal were killed by the flood and there is no accurate information regarding the numbers. Many of them were abandoned by their masters since people could not accommodate their pets in such a worse situation. The severity of the disaster was intensified when a cyclone hit the state of Queensland. At this juncture, it is necessary to discuss these issues as they would be helpful to learn some important lessons for future. According to infographics (as cited in the Telegraph, 2011), La Nino and seasonal monsoons jointly contributed to the flooding in Australia.

Australia is a country that faces considerable range of water scarcity. In this context, as mentioned in the beginning, the flooding and related issues can be attributed to man made causes to a large extent. Evidently, hydrogeologists could not give prior warning to the government regarding the likeliness of the disaster occurrence. Obviously the lessons we learn from this incident involve the inevitable measures we ought to take to address these sorts of emergencies. Preventing unfair human interferences with nature: as per the reports, the flooding severely affected the Queensland; and that can be partially attributed to deforestation in the area.

Increased level of industrial activities in Australia has evidently added to climate changes and thereby flooding. The need for efficient team of hydrogeologists: - It has been identified that early alarming systems are of great help to mitigate the impacts natural calamities like flooding and earthquake. Many countries including United States have developed some effective alarming systems to reduce the magnitude of the aftereffects. Significance of emergency response agencies ; Experiences so far reveal that effective rescue