All quiet on flood front

By Justin Robertson
MEDIA were barred from hearing personal stories told by Pakenham residents who were affected by the floods at Monday night’s Flood Warnings and Response Review forum.
The Cardinia Shire Council had invited media to the community event but, after 15 minutes of introductions they were asked to leave to “make residents feel at ease telling their stories” without fear of publication.
Farmers, homeowners and businesses will help mould the 2010-11 state review as they re-tell their personal accounts of what happened during the floods.
Between September 2010 and February 2011 there were more than 1500 flood warnings issued to the state which included 27 councils that were affected, 3,000 buildings and 7,500 residents who rang for assistance.
Cardinia Shire Mayor George Blenhorn said, “It was worst experienced in this region since 1971.”
The state-led review, headed by Neil Comrie, and its panelists will visit more than 15 communities across Victoria and put together a report to be released at the end of this year based on the recommendations made by residents who have lived through the floods.
“We drove through the flood affected areas of the Cardinia region, including Pakenham, and saw the damage it had caused,” Mr. Comrie said.
“There are different impacts in different areas and there’s no one size fits all approach with this review.”
Between September 2010 and February 2011, more than 100 Victorian towns and communities were affected by floods that caused widespread damage and loss. From January 10 to February 10 this year, more than 1,000 emergency calls were made to SES workers in Cardinia requesting help.
Mr. Comrie said it was still too early to identify what went wrong – if anything – in the Cardinia Shire during the floods, but did say the region’s topography had a lot to do with the areas that were damaged.
In the coming weeks Comrie said the review panel would be in talks with experts, such as hydrologists and will also be speaking with residents who received telephone warnings, text messages and will be looking to improve in those areas as they see fit.
“What some of these communities were faced with were large amounts of rain in a short period of time,” he said. “So we need to look at what occurred and what’s the best solution to deal with it moving forward.”