royal comission, page-4

this question needs to be raised, and I am sure it will be...
extract below from another article today...

What wasn?t mentioned was the fact that for more than a week prior to this large release, only 170,000 ML/day was being released as the storage capacity was allowed to rise to 191% from two weeks of heavy rains. And this meant the carefully designed flood buffer, having been taken to its limits, could no longer function as a buffer. The city was entirely at the mercy of the elements and it would only have taken another 37mm of rain in the catchment to hit the limits.

And as it takes 36 hours for water to flow from Wivenhoe to the CBD then it is absolutely clear that the flood peak of Wednesday night and Thursday morning was a direct result of the previous night?s forced release of the total inflow from the catchment. And this was only necessary because SEQ Water had spent two weeks releasing much less water than was being captured, into a river that was still well below minor flood level.

(Thanks to reader John McLean. No comments during holiday break.)

UPDATE

Others are asking the same questions, according to The Australian:

Senior engineering and hydrological sources, not authorised to comment on the record, told The Australian that investigations need to be conducted into the operations of Wivenhoe Dam, which had been forced to release massive volumes of water to reduce the risk of a catastrophic collapse.

They said there needed to be a thorough questioning of whether the decision to store as much water as possible leading into the wet season, and the subsequent sudden release of water, had contributed to flooding in Brisbane,
and whether flooding could instead have been minimised.

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/

ps I also spotted another article today with a graph showing the dam levels for the past year....and then the massive holding in the dam in the past 2 weeks....

***local councils should not have allowed houses to be built on the flood plains....

have a look at the mighty levy banks, built around Goondiwindi....11 metres high....so far they have saved the town...althought the water level is estimated to rise to 10.85 metres....
just goes to show some people do learn lessons from the past..they may need to raise the level another metre for future flood mitigation...
the govnuts would be better off following Goondiwind's lesson, and put the money into saving the houses in the first instance, like a levy,and no buildings in flood plains....instead of doing nothing and then paying double the amount to fix the problem...

oh, and the Insurance council is on a good wicket, some of their members dont pay for flood damage....
see the article below.....
note only Suncorp will pay.....the others escape with the red tape built into their contracts.......
ps I would want the flood policy spelt out in laymans terms in writing...I would not take their word over the phone...
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/no-policy-no-payout/story-e6frg6nf-1225987428964

ps there will be more floods like this in the future....
see Brazil with 480 dead in floods, Sri Lanka over 250,000 displaced....La Nina is causing havoc world wide...remember Pakistan and China just late last year...
and Look out vic, Nsw etc currently