Resilient in practice: Queensland's Yasi

Cyclone Yasi was larger and more powerful than Hurricane Katrina and yet the deaths and injuries are relatively low, indeed at the time of writing there were no confirmed deaths.  In some areas over 90% of buildings are seriously damaged.

There are some observations for the resiliency minded that emerge from this:

1. Queensland does not have a centre of population comparable to New Orleans.  Cairns is about 147,000 people, New Orleans 1.2m.  The logistics of evacuation and shelter are therefore an order of magnitude different.
2. The Australian authorities have an excellent track record and both state and individuals take responsibility for being prepared and acting when required to do so.  The US authorities were not so well prepared and perceived issues from past events meant that many of the urban poor black population did not act before it was too late and often did not believe what the authorities said.

It is clear that huge storms will continue to affect people across the world.  We can often predict them with some degree of accuracy and provide warnings.  But the final outcomes are not determined by the character of the storm but by the preparedness of the authorities and the people on the ground.