Wednesday, 24 March 2021

Trying Times !

 Thousands of people across northern New South Wales have been forced to evacuate their homes and are either hunkered down with friends or relatives, or waiting out the flood in crowded evacuation centres. When the waters do subside they will deliver heartbreak to many families. There is the expectation of huge piles of ruined furniture and whitegoods piled up on nature strips as householders try and clean up the mess left behind.

Inevitably, there will be rows with insurance companies.  Flood insurance is almost impossible to obtain where buildings have a track record of regular innundation in floods but this looks like the biggest flood in living memory and reached areas far from any water source.  Two distinctly different storm centres collided and dumped what some describe as a " hundred year " flood on the east coast of Australia.

No doubt ordinary Australians will put their hand in their pockets and donate to relief funds and both the Federal and state governments will need to find more relief money despite the huge outlay already spent combatting the coronvirus pandemic.  This economic setback will affect the economy for many months into the future.

Some insurance companies will reject claims on their " Act of God " defence, but car insurance is very different to house insurance.  Thousands of cars were submerged in this flood and will be written off and  for many owners this is a chance  to make the change to electric vehicles, but the car companies are not yet offering the cars we want to buy in electric mode.  Unfortunately, most of the replacements will have petrol or diesel engines.

The months ahead are also likely to jar the hip pocket nerve.  Stock losses will be reflected in higher meat prices and this flood has devastated the market gardens that supply the east coast of Australia.  Local government will be looking for more finance as they face the need to repair roads and bridges washed away in the flood and many areas are facing a new peril as landslips put whole housing subdivisions at risk.

It will be interesting to see just how this flood affects house prices.  The water reached places many would not describe as " flood prone " and yet sheer necessity is  forcing more development to encroach on what were in the past described as " flood plains.  Much new housing is in areas where house owners could expect a moderate flood at least once in their lifetime.

We may see a change in the building code to outlaw single story homes on a slab and replace them with upper story living, using the ground area for car parking and leisure.   It will be interesting to see how this amount of water reacts with the tunnels left by underground mining and whether that affects the rate of subsidence that naturally  occurs.

In the short term, it is a matter of survival.   Our emergency services have reacted magnificently and we have been spared the loss of lives.  No doubt many good hearted Australians will help with the cleanup and council tips will waive tip fees for a period of time.   We have had a year of bushfires to disrupt the nation and now it is a flood.  It is said that disasters come in " threes ".   The only question is what comes next ?

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