As everyone living in our region knows, the floods that hit last year were devastating for many. But for Cameron and Alexandra of Greenbank, they were mostly unaffected, just like their neighbours on the surrounding properties, albeit some water from local stormwater drains.
Many of these homeowners have now lived at their properties for nearly 40 years, and in that time, they have never been affected by flooding.
It wasn’t until they started shopping around for some different insurance policies that they were told they could no longer be insured by their normal insurer.
So, they then of course asked the sensible question, why? As it turned out, it’s because their properties had been classified as being on a flood plain.
Not long after this, all the surrounding residents in the area received letters from Logan City Council advising them that due to ‘flood risk’ and ‘updated flood mapping’ that their properties were at risk of flooding.
Don’t get me wrong. Logan City Council has quite rightly sought to update its flood mapping as a result of the floods last year, and I have no issue with the council doing that.
However, having visited these properties, the biggest flood risk is the fact that the Logan City Council have failed to clear and keep clean the stormwater drain that runs between these properties.
There is no way on earth that these properties can even remotely be classified as being on a flood plain and having a flood risk. I fully accept that it’s council responsibility to ensure that the flood mapping of the city is appropriate and up to date, but these are not some of those properties.
If Logan City Council took the time to go down and get their contractors to clean out the stormwater drains, remove all the rubbish and dead trees, and maybe fix some of the pipes in the process, this whole thing would not be an issue.
I can’t understand why Logan City Council is not prepared to go and meet with these residents and address their concerns. And, more importantly, take on the responsibility of ensuring that the storm drains are clean and clear.
The nearest river to these residents is the Logan River, and there is no way that at any flood height, (even the record 1887 flood), that it would reach anywhere near these properties.
So, I call on Logan City Council to do their job and look after their waterways and storm drains. That is all it would take to reduce the risk to these properties, and allow Cameron, Alexandra and their neighbours to get on with their lives, unaffected by ridiculous flood mapping.
