Andrew Hall, Ocean Shores
The nice thing about ‘déjà vu’ is you get to recognise the landmarks as they come round again.Your article ‘are we ready for the next flood event’ was such fun that way.
As an ex-member of the Marshalls Creek floodplain management committee I am saddened that there are no new ideas and that several old ones did not make the current crop.
The ocean outlet ideas mean that New Brighton (NB) and South Golden Beach (SGB) will end up as islands; and dredging Marshalls Creek could prove difficult.
Mathew Lambourne surveyed the creek years ago and discovered it has a rocky bottom and is therefore hard to dredge.
The problem with water is its tendency to flow downhill, and there is not a lot of downhill in NB and SGB. In some areas it is less than a metre above sea level. Add storm surge and exceptionally high tides and the water is more likely to come in than go out.
Adding to the future problems is the practice of filling the block or house footprint before building, thus incrementally raising flood heights.
All that has changed in 20 years is that house prices in the area have massively increased, thus putting a lot more pressure on Council to ‘do something’. The question of what to do boils down to two options: retreat or defend.
And so, retreat to where?
While ‘defend’ could lock the council into increasingly expensive ‘defence’ measures such as rock walls at $1,000 a metre etc.
I would rather use the money to fix the potholes throughout the Shire. Indeed ‘déjá vu’.
