Information for Australians affected by natural disasters
Over the years thousands of Australians have found themselves in the devastating path of natural disasters. On this page are links to collections, databases, articles and websites that give information and support to people dealing with the physical, financial and psychological effects of the aftermath.
The content below is provided for information purposes only. The State Library of Queensland takes no responsibility for the accuracy of information or advice contained in these links and people should consider seeking independent advice.
Contents
Practical information: websites | Practical information: books in the SLQ collection | Practical information: articles | Natural disasters: websites | Natural disasters: books in the SLQ collection | Natural disasters: articles | Natural disasters: audio materials and podcasts
Please note: links on this page to non-State Library websites and articles will open in a new window.
Practical information: websites
- Disaster Info Guides: Collection preservation advice
- After the flood: How to clean up your home
Lou Manfredini gives tips for equipment you'll need once the water is gone - Cleaning Up
NSW Government: Household clean-up advice for after a flood or storm - Disaster Management: Community health advice for dealing with floods and other disasters
Fact sheets and guides for Staying safe and healthy during flood recovery - Managing fatigue following natural disasters – Fact sheet
Department of Justice and Attorney General / Workplace Health and Safety Queensland - Repairing your house after a flood
Qld Dept Infrastructure & Planning Fact Sheet 2011 - Queensland Flood Disaster Support
The Queensland Law Society is working with the Queensland legal community to provide much-needed legal support to the State’s flood victims. - Flood v Storm – Insurance Claims
A paper by John Berrill (Principal, Maurice Blackburn Lawyers), presented at the Queensland Law Society's Flood Seminar.
Practical information: books in the SLQ collection
- Disaster psychiatry: intervening when nightmares come true / edited by Anand A. Pandya and Craig L. Katz
Location: Open Access, Lvl 2 (G 616.8521 2004) - Cataclysms, Crises and catastrophes: psychology in action /master lecturers Andrew Baum, et al.
Location : Closed Access – log in to request (G 363.34 1987) - Survival psychology / John Leach
Location: Open Access, Lvl 2 (G 155.935 1994) - Building resilience through personal, family and community relationships: conference proceedings of the 10th Annual Conference of the Australian Psychological Society's Psychology of Relationships Interest Group / edited by Tatjana Djokic.
Location: John Oxley Library - log in to request (P 158.2 AUS )
Practical information: articles
(may require logging in with your e-services card or Queensland public library account)
Australia / New Zealand Reference Centre
- Anguish to continue long after waters subside
Courier Mail, 10/01/2011, p4 - Flood help from super is possible
Sun Herald (Sydney), 23/01/2011 - Healing begins at home (cyclone lessons learnt)
- Pets can suffer from stress too
Courier Mail, , 21/01/2011, p11 - 'Plenty of time' to claim flood assistance
Sun Herald (Sydney), 17/01/2011 - Psychologists have warned victims of the devastating Queensland floods to thinks twice before rushing into counselling and to be on guard about questionable therapies
Daily Advertiser, 22/01/2011 - Teachers watch out for kids with flood trauma
ABC Premium News 24/01/2011
Australian Public Affairs – Full Text
- Picking up the pieces: family functioning in the aftermath of natural disaster
Family Matters, no 84, 2010: 79-80
MasterFile Premier
- Three years after Katrina: Lessons for community resilience
Environment, Sept 2008, Vol.50, Iss. 5, p36-47 - Part 5: Living better: Coming back strong
Men's Health, Jan/Feb 2011, Vol.26, Iss.1, p139-144
Natural disasters: websites
- Qld Government – flood information
Information about support and assistance, volunteering and donating, recovery update, news and alerts. - Queensland Under Water
A collection of articles about the 2011 Queensland floods from Brisbane Times online newspaper - ABC Cyclone Yasi Coverage
Latest news and information - Track Cyclone Yasi's path with Satellite Images from NOAA
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, USA - for Eastern Australia/Southwest Pacific - Tropical Cyclones in Queensland (Qld Bureau of Meteorology)
Cyclone history; impact descriptions of selected tropical cyclones between 1858 - 2007 - Bureau of Meteorology
Tropical cyclone information, weather and climate data, El Niño and La Niña, warnings for Queensland. - Volunteering Queensland
Register your interest in volunteering for the current natural disaster, the Queensland floods.
Natural disasters: books in the SLQ collection
- Cyclone: a century of Australian cyclonic destruction / Hector Holthouse
Location: Open Access, Lvl 2 (G 551.552094 1986) - Encyclopedia of hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones / David Longshore
Location: Open Access, Lvl 2 (G 551.552 1998) - La Niña and it's impacts: facts and speculations / Michael H Glantz
Location: Open Access, Lvl 2 (G 551.6 2002) - The weather makers: the history and future impact of climate change / Tim Flannery
Location: Open Access, Lvl 2 (G 551.6 2005) - Tracy: the storm that wiped out Darwin on Christmas Day 1974 / Gary McKay
Location: Open Access, Lvl 2 (G 363.3492 2001) - The angry earth: disaster in an anthropological perspective / edited by Anthony Oliver-Smith and Susanna M. Hoffman.
Location: Open Access, Lvl 2 (G 363.34 1999)
Natural disasters: articles
(May require logging in with your e-services card or Queensland public library account)
Australia / New Zealand Reference Centre
- Brisbane people tend to forget that we are a flood city. It is a vast plate that dishes water into Moreton Bay
QWeekend Magazine, 22/01/2011 - Nothing could prepare our eyes our minds for the ferocity of the Brisbane River
QWeekend Magazine, 22/01/2011 - Trauma begins to show as waters recede: health – 2011 flood disaster
Australian, 21/01/2011, p5
- Natural disasters: Australia and Oceania
Collection of articles for 2011 floods - The great avoidable flood: an inquiry's challenge – 2011 flood disaster
Weekend Australian, 22/01/2011
Proquest Science Journals
- Global warming pattern formation: Sea surface temperature and rainfall
Journal of climate, 15/02/2010, Vol.23, Iss.4, pg. 66-21 - Higher frequency of "super-cyclones" along the Great Barrier Reef over the past 5,000 years
Nature, Vol.413, Iss. 6855, p508-512
Gale Virtual Reference Library
- Natural Disasters
Encyclopedia of death and the human experience, 2009, p370-375
MasterFile Premier
- The city shall rise again: urban resilience in the wake of disaster
Chronicle of higher education, 14/01/2005, Vol.51, Iss.19, pB6-B9 - Through the eye ( Kate Charleston's experience of Cyclone Larry)
Australian Geographic, Jan-March 2007, Issue 85, P115 - When cyclones strike
Australian Geographic, Jan-March 2007, Issue 85, p104-118
Australian Public Affairs – Full Text
- The impact of natural disasters on mental health: [Paper in special report: Recovery after trauma: The aftermath of the Victorian Bushfires]
In-Psych, April 2009, v.3, no.2, p8-9
Natural disasters: audio material and podcasts
- Deluges that have gone before: floods in Australian history
ABC Radio National 9 February 2011.
As flash floods, tidal surges, cyclones, burst riverbanks and downpours have impacted on much of Eastern Australia, we've heard many references to the floods that have gone before. These floods stand as markers and reference points, in both practical and symbolic ways. But what do we really know of these past floods? And what happens as we move beyond lived memory? Using the Brisbane floods of 1974 and 1893 as reference points, Rear Vision traces some of the stories of flood, and asks what is remembered, whose stories remain, and whether the murky state of collective memory obscures other stories, and other floods.
- Cyclone Yasi: the impact and aftermath
ABC Radio National Life Matters 3 February 2011.
Queensland is now experiencing its second major disaster in a month: the impact of Cyclone Yasi in the north of the state. We talk to people who weathered the storm and hear advice on the best way to manage the recovery.
- The mind in crisis: to debrief or not to debrief?
ABC Radio National All in the Mind 12 February 2011.
Floods, fires, cyclones and the anniversary of Black Saturday. Psychological debriefing is a technique aimed at helping us process traumatic events, so the emotional scars can heal not harm. To some the approach is discredited, ineffective and may even do damage - to others it can still have important role. Beyond the controversy, where does the field stand today?
- Why So Wet?
ABC Radio National Counterpoint 7 February 2011.
After years of drought, many parts of eastern Australia are, or have been, under water. So what's caused the floods?
Stewart Franks, a hydrologist, suggests that the best science actually implicates a naturally occurring form of climate variation, and in fact some scientists predicted the recent big wet years ago.
More information
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Last updated: 28th February 2011
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