1 September 2012

Simon turns to the hivemind for disaster resilience

| johnboy
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Simon Corbell has announced he has $2.7 million to spend on disaster resilience in the ACT and wants your ideas on how to spend it:

New projects and initiatives that aim to protect Canberra against the threat of a natural disaster or emergencies could boost their budget with $2.7 million in grant funding now available, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Simon Corbell, said today.

Eligible projects are required to be more than $2000 and include:

— Disaster mitigation strategies or projects;
— Investment in disaster resilient public infrastructure;
— Disaster warning systems;
— Community education, awareness and readiness activities;
— Research on natural disasters of benefit to the public;
— Programs that support vulnerable sections of the community;
— IT projects that enhance disaster resilience;
— Projects which assist in post disaster community recovery.

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AsparagusSyndrome10:14 pm 03 Sep 12

PantsMan said :

I will happily take $2,000 to buy an external USB hard drive and back up my PC. Thanks Simon.

PS – does this look like pork-barrelling?

Pork barrelling – Excellent suggestion. Salted pork, kept in sealed barrels, buried in strategic locations all over town, in case we get cut off from our food supplies by earthquake etc. Should help to see us through a bit of a tight spot. Tins of Spam too. They’re good.

PantsMan said :

I will happily take $2,000 to buy an external USB hard drive and back up my PC.

Your PC is almost certainly useless on it’s own. If you’re in an organisation of any size, $2k won’t pay for the network switch port the PC connects to, plus the router the switch connects to, as well a share of the many servers needed to provide all the applications that you require for your job, plus the firewalls in front of them ..

Not sure how you could determine that a program for individuals, groups and the whole community at large is Pork Barrelling, but maybe I’m missing something.

so will $1.7 million will go back to ACT Gov departments to do the jobs were were expecting anyway like tree/rock removal from fence lines, signage, fire trail maint, DR for data centres, etc

Is there a co-ordinated Disaster Resilience plan or just a random selection of projects ??

I will happily take $2,000 to buy an external USB hard drive and back up my PC. Thanks Simon.

PS – does this look like pork-barrelling?

If I recollect correctly, the primary entry point for embers during the bush fires were open eaves. Merely closing external entry points to roof spaces would have saved dozens of houses for a minimal cost.

The list of disasters Canberra likely faces is relatively small, disease, food and energy security, drought and fire.
We already have three water sources, so drought is mostly covered. Fire is our most pressing concern, and can easily be better prepared for with minimal home modifications. Our food security is tied to our energy security, and while it may be dirty, we aren’t running out of coal or gas anytime soon, so apart from incentivising gas conversions and alternative energies, we should be OK on that front. Subsiding the farmers markets would also do wonders for our food security.

Disease is one we don’t think about much, but the CDC is predicting a 90% chance of a global pandemic in the next 50 years. Apart from beefing up medical services and encouraging general health, our best defence is foreign aid. Disease doesn’t respect national borders, so to stop it anywhere means stopping it everywhere.

The top priority should still be fire readiness, if the government doesn’t want to pay to fix peoples houses, then at least some education is in order. And for science’s sake, stop telling people to buy metal fences, they are death traps in a fire storm.

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