It Is Obvious But We Really Need To Acknowledge The Risk Of Natural Disasters Is Rising Faster Than We Could Have imagined.

The rain in the last week or so on Eastern Australia has really bordered on the Biblical and the impact on infrastructure, and many utilities, has been very severe.

Key issues for many communities have been loss of telephone and internet services including, on some occasions, triple zero services.

Secondary effects have included all sorts of supply chain and distribution issues affecting food, medicines etc.

Here is one report.

NBN Co, Telstra, Optus networks impacted by severe floods

By Richard Chirgwin on Mar 1, 2022 8:55AM

Power loss downs exchanges, towers.

Telecommunications network operators including NBN Co, Telstra and Optus are responding to outages in South East Queensland and Northern NSW caused by severe floods.

NBN Co said 51,500 premises in Queensland and 5500 premises in NSW are impacted as of February 28.

"Power outages remain the predominant cause of disruption to services," NBN Co said.

"Approximately 20 generators are working across most affected areas of the Sunshine Coast, Gympie, Maryborough and the Greater Brisbane Area where it has been safe for us to install them.

"We are continuing to work with power authorities for updates and site access (where required)."

NBN Co added that as waters recede, it will "have a better understanding of the damage that has been done to the NBN".

"When it is safe for technicians to do their assessments, we’ll have a clearer idea of how long it will take to repair our infrastructure and fully restore services," the company said.

Telstra, meanwhile, has put emergency support into place for people affected in South East Queensland.

The move comes as the tropical low causing the floods moves into northern NSW, causing record floods in Lismore and resulting in an evacuation alert for the whole Northern Rivers region.

On Monday, the ABC’s live blog of the floods reported around 2500 landline customers were affected, and 70-plus mobile base stations were offline.

Telstra general manager May Boisen told the ABC the towns affected at the time were “Cinnabar, Kilkivan, Kybong, Oakview, Amamoor, Imbil, Cedar Valley, Brooloo, Mothar Mountain and Goomeribong”.

A cable in Kilkivan was damaged by flooding, but Boisen said most of the outages were due to power loss.

Telstra told iTnews the full extent of the damage won’t be known for some days.

More here:

https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-telstra-optus-networks-impacted-by-severe-floods-576662

A discussion of some of the impacts is found here:

Getting urgent medicines in a flood zone can be a life or death challenge

Published: March 3, 2022 6.29pm AEDT

Author

Sabrina Pit

Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Sydney, Honorary Adjunct Research Fellow, Western Sydney University

I’m writing this from the flooded far north coast of New South Wales, where all around me people are contending with the awful and unexpected consequences of a catastrophic flood.

I have worked in rural health for a long time and this has been the worst I have experienced it. It is well established that those living in flood-prone areas often already have more financial and health issues than others.

Among those consequences is the need to manage medicines safely, and sometimes urgently find and acquire medicines you need to stay alive and healthy or keep pain at manageable levels.

The far north coast has a high population of older people, many of whom need daily medicines such as insulin to survive.

While I was picking up medicines for a family member this morning, another older person turned up at the pharmacy with a script. She was running out of her medicine today but the pharmacy did not have the required medicines left. She continued her hunt for medicines at the last pharmacy in the area we have access to.

These are just some of the challenges people face when it comes to medicines in a disaster zone.

From ordinary errand to a life or death challenge

A week ago, if you needed to top up your medicine supplies, you could pop down to the local chemist. The script would be filled, and supplies plentiful. It would be an easy trip.

Today during floods, an errand like that means confronting challenges such as:

·         many chemists being underwater or badly flooded

·         the chemists that are open are contending with a surge of demand as people flock there to buy medicines

·         power is down in many places, meaning online systems for managing scripts are impossible to access and fridges used to store medicines such as insulin at home are not working

·         phone and internet is down or patchy in many places

·         petrol is very hard to get and running out, so many people cannot drive to the chemist

·         many people have lost their cars too or have water damaged cars

·         some people cannot leave home due to landslides or floodwaters

·         roads are being cut off and supply lines disrupted because the highway is blocked off

·         getting a new script is not as easy as heading to the doctor’s office; some GPs are also flooded in, their practices inundated or not-operational and many are unable to get to work and/or stuck without power, phone or internet.

These challenges are not unique to our area nor are they unique to floods. People who have survived bushfires and other disasters have faced similar issues.

But with disasters predicted to become more frequent and more intense as the climate changes, it does raise the question what systems we can put in place to deal with these challenges in future without putting people at risk.

What can be done?

Firstly, if you are in an emergency, please contact the SES on 132 500.

When preparing your evacuation plan, ensure you have a list of all your medicines, care plans, scripts, Medicare and other health-care cards details and other important medical information ready.

If an evacuation warning is out for your area, ensure all your information and medicines are packed. Store medicines that need to remain cold in an esky with ice bricks, so you are ready when you need to evacuate. The esky is important; power may not be available for a while when you leave home.

Several apps are available to help in preparing for a disaster and taking your medicines safely, such as the Red Cross’ RediPlan emergency survival plan or the MedicineWise app.

If you know a flood is heading your way, it’s also handy to have extra cash at hand. During this flood disaster, electronic payment systems were not working in many places in the Northern Rivers. Having some cash can further reduce already very stressful circumstances.

If you’re flood-affected, in need of medicines and can get yourself to a pharmacy, it may be OK even if you have lost your scripts in the floods. The pharmacist may be able to call the GP on their mobile.

If you have internet access, use social media to see if others can help with transport or delivery of medicines. Many people feel powerless during disasters and will be keen to help.

And there may be some strictly limited circumstances under which a pharmacist can provide a small emergency supply of certain medicines without a script.

According to Queensland Health:

In an emergency situation where you are not able to reach a community pharmacy, your GP’s prescription can be filled by a Queensland Health public hospital pharmacy. However, please be aware that hospitals may not stock the full range of medicines prescribed by your GP, as the needs of hospital and community patients are different.

You can use My Health Record to get certain key details on your medicines and health details, if you’ve got internet access.

The full article is here:

https://theconversation.com/getting-urgent-medicines-in-a-flood-zone-can-be-a-life-or-death-challenge-178300

In passing, it goes without saying that the myHealthRecord is as useful as a ‘barnacle on a battleship’ in situations of internet less – confirming it really is not a system that can be relied on in an emergency. A brief paper record of key information is better!

As to what can be done it is a utility by utility discussion and the most important thing is to recognise that the risks of disruption are rising – often due to climate change – and we need investment is as much adaption and mitigation in he good times as makes sense to improve the ‘bad times’

As an example much more investment in satellite technology and portable base stations would seem sensible!

I don’t know all the answers but I m sure Government has access to all the relevant experts and they should be listening to them!!!!

David.