Queensland flood Jan 2013
Don't feel pity when you see these TV pictures of Australian towns yet again flooded and the locals crying for what they've lost.
Feel embarrassment. Shame.
How stupid is this country that we not only built towns and suburbs in flood-prone areas, but left them defenceless against the inevitable floods?
Some properties in Queensland are now under water for the second or even third time in four years.
Bundaberg, the worst hit town with 2000 homes damaged, still has no real levee despite being built along the Burnett River in an area subject to tropical cyclones.
Are we mad? The inevitable happens, we spend billions on repairs and donate hundreds of millions of dollar to victims, many of whom didn't even bother to take out insurance. But we don't spend the fraction of the money needed to save those towns in the first place.
- "Nation must learn from disasters" in Daily Telegraph (31 January 2013, p.13) by Andrew Bolt
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