Here's an example. When we bought a house in Florida, for cash mind you, I, for some stupid reason, thought it prudent to buy insurance, and so I did. It cost maybe $1,000/year, maybe a little more. Good deal for peace of mind I thought!

Well, come the second year, I got a letter from the company that they were canceling my policy unless I fixed XY and Z on our house, all expensive jobs. Granted, they took my initial money without taking a look, then canceled the policy. Fucking bastards. That's a racket.

Home insurance only maters if it's ongoing. Of course it will pay off for the insurer if they cancel the policy after one year. Fool me once...

Insurance rep: Going forward we will focus exclusively on insuring people in safe city suburbs that will likely never need to be paid out. At the end of the day insurance is a business, and with business climate-change due to Covid, where corporation are making record profits, we need to adjust to this new normal.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/australia-breaking-news-today-latest-updates-live-nov...

Jones confronted Perrottet about what he says was a lack of warning, lack of emergency response and lack of telecommunications available when the town was hit by floodwaters. There was a long period when residents couldn't contact police and coordinate where help was needed.

Jones: We had no food, no clothing, no one telling them what was going to happen next because no one was here. What's your answer to some of them before I keep going?

Perrottet: Whatever we can do to make sure that is fixed, we'll do that.

What crap. It's a carbon copy response to what Northern Rivers residents got back in Feb-Mar i.e zero. Despite all the reviews, the mea culpas, the excuses, promises to be better leaders going forward - it's still the same. Don't forget that Australians pay amongst the highest taxes in the world - but what do we get for it when the shit hits the fan? Nothing. Well nothing but a money sink-hole of bureaucratic uselessness.

The fact that there was no warning is criminal. The wall of water was from a dam release - not the rain - so an official flooding of the town - but still no warning ...?! Unfortunately it's another one of those New Normal crimes where no one ever gets held to account.

I remember touring around with my chainsaw after Nepartak in Taidong to help clear-up when i saw the army arrive to help at the school for mentally disabled in Taidong city - it made my eyes fill with tears to see them come in a time of real need. It's not like that in Aus, sadly. The tears are all from desolation, abandonment.

Check out this footage. From the current floods in mid-west NSW Looks like a raging brook during a typhoon in Taiwan, but it's not. It's portrayed in some media like it is from the rain - but there was only 100 mil - this is a dam-release - unleashed onto village residents.

Surely, whoever's (not) in control of dam-release decisions could look at the weather report. Big-rain coming - better let off some water before it hits.

No doubt there's some tangled bureaucratic reasoning for not doing that - but it's gotta be fixed - as a mitigating measure - quite a simple one that would avoid flooding people's homes with a destructive wall-of-water.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/video/dramatic-video-of-wyangala-dam-spilling-230-000-megal...

The normal path is they move south then at some point recurve towards NZ. The eye looks to be over the Gold Coast right now -remember Lows rotate clockwise in southern hemisphere.

Ground is so sodden that even 100-150 mm could cause serious flooding, especially if it happens in a torrential burst.

Current status is steady rain, not torrential. Hope it stays that way. I don't want to lose the internet for another 11 days.

Resilience NSW is an agency set up after the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires to coordinate emergency services and their disaster management. The agency has a $777 million budget.

So, a publicly funded investigation after the bushfires (which were themselves caused by disastrous management from the experts when 'fuel-reduction burns' blew out of control) resulted in a further $777 bil being spent on setting up yet another incompetent layer of management.

A report by former police commissioner Mick Fuller and chief scientist Mary O'Kane has been handed down after the inquiry and recommended Resilience NSW be shut down because it's ineffective

Classic Aussie-style. An expensive, public-funded bureaucracy of experts set-up to tell everyone what to do - who end up being totally useless in a 'real-world' situation - and in fact make everything much worse.

Chris Minns: The evidence is overwhelming at this point that the massive bureaucracy that is Resilience NSW being placed on top of our emergency services has not worked.

No-one gets held accountable of course. Yes Fitzsimmons will be paid out, then promoted sideways - but that's not accountability. How about the idiots who setup Resilience NSW in the first place? This is what happens when the system reigns supreme - no-one is ever at fault.

Shane Fitzsimmons - Aussie fat cat

Here's the real worrying part:

The report also recommended a fifth deputy commissioner position to be created within NSW Police to focus on responding to and recovering from natural disasters.

Kevin Morton, police association: It makes a lot of sense putting police at the front and centre of disaster management.

No, it doesn't make sense! Australia is already a de facto police state - they don't need more power. The police were nowhere to be seen during the floods - unless you count setting up speed cameras in flood affected areas.

It's not complicated. We simply need a normal, functioning, emergency response unit. Fit, able bodied people who are not going to shit their pants when faced with an emergency. Otherwise, do nothing and stay the fuck out of the way. Give the $777 mil per year to normal people doing the DIY rescues, and the victims.

SES (State Emergency Service) Commissioner Carlene York was asked why civilians were told not to conduct flood rescues in their own boats.

SES/Carlene York: There is rubble, refuse, very swift-flowing water, contaminated water. Going out is very dangerous so I have an obligation to try and keep the community safe.

Keep the community safe?! Not only did you withhold public-owned life-saving resources, but you tried to stop normal people from doing rescues of stranded community members. Make no mistake, many people would have died if not for the Tinnie Army- who thankfully ignored the experts. (pictured)

Mark Hutchings, NSW Maritime: Operating in flood waters is the most dangerous, perilous thing that you can do. As a government agency you would not recommend, nor would you deploy, untrained staff in inappropriate vessels into that environment.

What a load of deflective crap. For a start, this was not a white-water canyon situation - it's a flood-plain flood. The water inexorably rises but it's not a rushing torrent beyond the river or creek itself - it's overflow water - it's relatively calm - more like a lake - as you can see in the picture.
Yes, there are risks, the water was polluted with sewerage, due to other government failings, but away from the actual river, the conditions are such that a sensible person/fisherman can handle in an emergency. None of the rescuers lost their lives. They saved a bunch.

But sadly, this is what it has come to in the experts-gone-mad world we live in. The head of the emergency rescue services saying we couldn't possibly go out in dangerous conditions! We only do govt-approved non-dangerous disasters and brochure-writing. We're great at brocure-writing! Would you like one?

Food drops stopped without notice, there was a portaloo on the street and it was taken away, and no-one gave us the heads-up. You don't hear anything. You don't know what's going on. You don't know what the next step is.

[You] definitely feel abandoned. I think everyone in Goodna is feeling that way.

There are 15 houses in the street — there's only three of them occupied at the moment. The adrenaline has worn off, the positivity has worn off. It's very hard to stay motivated … that 'yes, we can get through this' — it's all starting to eat away at you mentally.

Svea Pitman, Mullumbimby: I'm a single mum. I struggled to get out of the rental market and now I own a home I can't live in.

Since then we've moved to a converted shed, an Airbnb, we spent six days in a tent over Easter because there was nowhere to put us at all.

I've just managed to extend my home loan to get a motorhome and I'm now living in the gutter outside the front of my old house. I've cried every day for 100 days.

I've noticed since moving back to Aus, if you don't live in a big city, you don't count.

You find you're paying sky-high 1st-world prices for basic services, but getting 3rd-world delivery. The roads are full of giant potholes (that's even before the floods), electricity, internet goes out at the drop of a hat - with no explanation except a robo-telephone response telling you:
the estimated time of restoration is: unknown

That's a giant fuck-you from the authorities. Since the floods, the internet has been out twice more, and the electricity has gone off twice - for extended periods. Services are getting progressively whittled down but meanwhile prices are going up!

ABC: Rain, wind, storms and machinery have all impacted the Essential Energy power lines connecting Tottenham, Tullamore and Trundle, leaving the towns without electricity 10 times in the past year.

Gary Brown: It used to take a few hours to go out and now it's almost immediately when the power goes out, the phones and internet go out. We can't dial triple-0. We can't dial anything. We've got nothing. You can't get an ambulance or you can't get a fire brigade.

Hopefully it's over for the season - and for many many seasons to come. It's time for somewhere-the-fuck-else to feel the sting of climate change for a while.

This spring in Japan has been pretty much a 180 from last spring. This year, cool, and lots of rain. Some parts of Japan are getting 250+ mm in 24 hours today and tomorrow.>

250mm is a lot of rain in any man's language. I seem to remember a few years ago southern areas of Japan had a severe meiyu season that caused floods and landslides.

Meanwhile the system here is hanging around with the biggest rain to the north west of Brisbane. We've been spared anything serious here so far. It does appear to have weakened somewhat in the last 6 hrs - we'll se what happens overnight.

The talk is that the La Nina will continue into winter. There does seem to be masses of moisture around for any system to pick up.

On the other side of the world there's a severe drought in Ethiopia.

As discussed, La Nina is caused by trade winds, which are caused by differences between hot and cold air - i wonder if the Arctic melting contributes to that hot-cold dynamic?

So far it's been ok here, 20-30 mil overnight, but it's hit or miss so that could change. The water table is currently the same height as the earth table so any rain will be amplified. I'm hopeful it will stay west as it moves south, but there's no guarantee. With no tracking product from BoM and pressure charts only updated once every 24hrs, you don't really know - only watch the radar, see where it's vaguely heading.

Looking at it on the sat it's clearly another East Coast Low - also not known as, but should be - Cyclone.

The rotating system on the coast of Brisbane is a split off from a huge system which was on the coast of north Qld a couple of days ago (200mm falls) - that's heading east as you can see on the sat - while a new ECL has sprung up in the same spot as the previous two and is now gaining strength and doing it's own thing. There are places getting smashed again today - this is an unfolding situation.

That got me thinking about the fragility of the internet. Like everyone, it’s formed an integral part of my life. It’s not some add-on like it was in the 90's, it’s an essential service. I’d taken it’s thereness for granted - like The Sun is there - so it was an eye-opener when it was suddenly withdrawn indefinitely due to ... we don't know...

We're not allowed to know.

(Side question: I feel sad when i don't have the internet, but am i happier than i was before i knew the internet existed?)

This probably should be flagged for giving away state military secrets, but - pssst … if you want to knock out Australia’s internet for 11 days - you don’t need any of your fancy cyber-war hacking - just sneeze loudly.

If they ever do fix it, sneeze again.

If Australia got into a war with China tomorrow - the internet would go out (indefinitely) in the first five minutes.

Scheduled time of Completion: When the war is over (either way).

That is a real proposition - pretty sure people in Australia are not ready for that. (Btw, shelves at the big retailers would empty overnight coz it’s mostly made in China - including the shelves - which is another reason why i don't think Aus would support Taiwan in the mythical WW3 scenario.)

The internet is a double-edged sword.

One side: the data-centralization power that elites crave

The other: an alternative source of information/communication for humans - able to bypass MSM

If you then take that away - it’s like being rounded up and sent back to the lowest of the low of Plato’s caves to watch TV - after you’ve escaped that.

I know - coz i experienced it. Married at First Sight (MAFS) Reality TV shows, vacuous news delivered by vacuous, inaccessible Celebrities, sponsored by Telstra, Gambling, Alcohol, Insurance companies, McDonald's, Furniture/hardware stores, and Covid Safe.

A neat insight into the Aussie Model: Don’t spend money on prevention measures, simply buy expensive insurance for your entire life! Then go to Harvey Norman/Bunnings to replace it when it gets destroyed. Everyone makes a buck!

Meanwhile: get drunk, vaccinated, fat, and responsibly gamble your money back to us. (But Don't Smoke! Not weed, or normal cigarettes!)

If, during a war for example, we are forced back onto MSM (newspapers/TV/radio) for gleaning our version of reality … we’re fucked.

It’s not hard to see how switching the internet off for a while in select locations could be seen as a tool for preventing disinformation - during a time of crisis - by those protecting us

- for the common good -

It finally flickered back on in a patchy way on the 11th day. Telstra called to say everything was fine maybe Day 12-13 - the call dropped out literally as the guy was telling me it was fine. He called back but hung up after two rings - i missed it - pressed call back - but it was straight back to the lowest of the low robo-rungs again. Fuck that. That’s the last I’ve heard from Telstra.

In fact, it doesn’t matter whether you get to speak to a person or not - the people (offshore call centre) are, well-trained, at reading off a script - that’s been refined by The Algorithm (see Dan’s novel) from all the calls recorded for training purposes.
They’re bio-bot voices, basically. Telstra could save even more money by ending you at the initial robo-response:

Welcome to Telstra! We’re currently experiencing a high volume of faceless corporate greed, so you could save time by going to fuck yourself now. Thanks for all the money. Good-bye.

The sole purpose of the offshore operator is to serve as an impenetrable buttress between the customer and management. I don’t blame the operator at all - I blame the mega-salaried managers.
Never did get an answer to any of my questions. Still don’t know what the problem was exactly - there was nothing in the media.

I assume: gross incompetence by the experts at a minimum. Infested by Health Safety (new normal) Protocols culture - which amounted to: fuck all

Trouble is: Telstra is one of the biggest sponsors of commercial media out there - so forget about getting any investigative reporting on their colossal failure to deliver in a time of crisis.

Ain’t gonna happen.

Even the publicly-funded ABC won’t cover it coz they’re afraid it may lead to vaccine hesitancy/covid conspiracies (now not being the right time to question the experts etc).

That leaves us with another powerful, faceless, unaccountable corporation (Telstra) - over which we have zero control as a normal person.

(phone is on speaker - cleaning house as a filler-activity - dash to pick up)
Hello …?

Hi, is that Dulan?

Yes, sorry i missed your name.

Alicia

Hi Alicia.

Dulan, in order to confirm your identity, for security purposes can you please say your full-name and date of birth?

Dulan Drift **** (redacted!!!)

And your address there?

****
Thank you, so how can we help you today, Dulan?

(repeat story - add:)

The situation is we feel like we’ve been abandoned. There’s no sign of anyone official doing anything, including Telstra. If no-one's doing anything, people need the internet to co-ordinate so they can do it themselves.

Yes, I understand your situation, Dulan, I'm looking at the computer now, there is an outage in your area. Due to a severe weather event.

Yep, we know that. But what was the damage exactly? What’s being done to fix it? When's it really coming back on? This is 7-days of out and counting.

I’m checking that information for you now, just bear with me…

Sure.

(computer keyboard clattering)

Yes, there was a scheduled outage on Feb 28 for 48 hrs …

A scheduled outage - what does that mean?

Then as you said, on Mar 3 when you first called, that was changed to severe weather event, and the estimated time for restoration was entered as 24 hrs, which was, ahr, was updated a further 24 hrs on the 4th, then, ahr, on the 5th it was updated to 36 hrs.

None of that information was correct btw - for training purposes.

These are just estimates, so it was correct information at the time it was given.

No it wasn't. It was ...

And.. today now your district has been updated to ‘indefinite’.

Indefinite? So Telstra’s answer after 7-days is: ‘Dunno’?

No, it’s not that Telstra doesn’t know, the technicians file 24 hr updates, this is just what they’ve written in for today.

Ok, can i speak to one of those technicians? Or anyone who does know? Coz all i’m hearing from Telstra so far is disinformation.

It’s not disinformation. The technicians are aware of an outage in your district - but they are very busy working to resolve the problem - they don’t have time to come to the phone.

Funny thing is, I can see the tower from my house, it’s still standing. I’m looking at it now. There’s no helicopters flying technicians in - no-one working on it busily or otherwise. I keep checking with the binoculars - there’s no-one there.

Due to severe weather, as well as Covid protocols, the technicians are working remotely.

Remotely?

Yes.

Doing what?

They’re working on multiple issues.

Such as?

I don't have access to that information. I can only tell you what’s coming up on the screen.

Sure. Can i speak to someone who does have access to the information? Telstra can’t just take away the internet when people need it most - say indefinite … not give an answer why.

I have given you an answer, but if you like, I could escalate your inquiry to …

Yes please.

Just hold the line for a moment, Dulan, i will discuss your matter with The Group. It will take a few minutes.

That’s fine - thank you Alicia.

(no muzak - 2 minutes later)

Hi Dulan, sorry to keep you waiting.

No problem.

I’ve discussed your case with The Group and was informed that we can’t escalate in cases of a severe weather event.

What? Why not?

Because it’s a severe weather event. It’s an evolving situation. The technicians are…

That’s a non-answer. The severe weather event was 7 days ago … What damage did it do?

The technicians are doing everything they can to restore the …

I don‘t think they are. I don’t think they’re doing anything except spreading disinformation - this is… (talking over each other)

Ok, Alicia, you talk first.

There has been a severe weather event, I have correctly given you the information I have on the screen - we understand your situation - we request you to please be patient and wait for the Outage Completion.

Wait for The Completion?

Yes. We are very sorry for the inconvenience.

So, the answer is no answer.

No, the answer is the technicians are working on it remotely - we ask you to patiently wait for Completion.

(stunned silence)

Was there anything else I could help you with today?

What?

Was there anything else I could help you with today?

Yes.

I’m sorry I didn’t quite catch that?

Yes.

Thank-you. I have found an account registered to the number you called on – is this the account about which you are inquiring today?

Yes.

Are you calling in relation to a 5G NBN plan or a 3g and 4g mobile telephone service?

Mobile.

Have you been impacted by the recent severe weather events?

Yes.

So that we may best serve you, in a few words, say what you are calling
about.

Internet Outage

I didn’t quite catch that - that’s ok - I’ll connect you to an operator. Please hold the line – the expected wait time is 5 to 15 minutes.

(elevator music punctuated every minute by:)

When you call us from the My Telstra app your call will be answered up to four times faster. Or simply click on the Get Help link on My Telstra app to trouble-shoot most problems.

Hi Dulan, my name is Rolland, how may we help you today?

Hi Roland, i...

Dulan, this conversation is being recorded for training purposes, are you ok with that?

Yes, good idea.

Thank you Dulan.

Is it ok if i record too?

Sure.

Thank you Rolland.

So how may we assist you today Dulan?

Yeah, we’ve had a severe weather event, the internet has been out for 7 days - i’ve called uhr, the last three days, the answer is always technicians are working on it - it will be back on within 24hrs - but that’s not been correct information. So we’d like to know
(a) What damage was done to Telstra’s infrastructure, exactly?
(b) What are the technicians doing to fix it?
(c) When’s it gonna be fixed?

Dulan, I’m sorry to hear about your circumstances. I can’t find your details here - we’ve sent you an email with a file number, can you open that while we’re on the line and give me that identity code?

Mate, i don’t have the internet. That’s why i’m calling. There was a big flood - it’s been out for seven days. I can’t give you an identity code. You have my name, my date of birth, my telephone number, what …

Yes, but i’m just having trouble locating you on the computer. So you recently applied for a 5G connection and it hasn’t been connected yet, is that correct?

No, it’s not. The internet is out - for seven days - yes there was a storm, but i lived in Taiwan for 23 years through typhoons & earthquakes, it didn’t go out at all - so we don’t know what’s going on. We need some answers.

Yes, I understand. So you didn’t apply for a 5G wifi connection to your house recently?

No.

I think i know what the problem is Dulan - you’ve been accidentally routed through (by a fucking robot) to the 5G connection department. You need to speak to the internet outage department.

Yes, I do.

I’m so sorry Dulan to hear of your situation - i will put you through to the right department now - please hold the line.

(Elevator muzak)

Robot: When you call us from the My Telstra app your call will be answered up to four times faster. Or simply click on the Get Help link on My Telstra app to trouble-shoot most problems.

Not surprisingly, but worryingly, the experts, having failed abysmally twice - in one month when it counted, for the Big Ones - have now begun issuing evacuation orders left-right-and-centre.

This is what they really love doing (besides cover-up investigations): enforcing public control measures.

Not doing anything practical to mitigate the problem, coz that would involve fixing it, which is too much trouble, besides, we're incredibly busy covering-up Covid - so now's not the right time.

At least it's a change from the stay-at-home orders, i guess.

Apart from the risks associated with over-abusing evacuation orders, they're easy for the Issuer to issue, but it's another thing for the Issuee to suddenly have to leave home to find alternative accommodation.

The new orders read - this is one i've randomly checked checked now for a ref:

SES: If you remain in the area after 3:00pm Friday 8 April 2022 you may be trapped without power, water and other essential services and it may be too dangerous to rescue you.

Forget about the may be part - you'll be totally abandoned - you can bank on that.

In fact, the current evacuations are nothing more than bureaucratic over-reactions to the previous bungles. The weather forecast for Sydney today (where the orders are in place) is for 8-20mm of rain. Hardly Noah's Ark territory.