1) Queensland’s devastating floods are the result of heavy rains caused by two normal weather storms. The trade winds were also a cause, because the prevailing pattern of easterly winds in the tropics, forcing warm water to build up in the western Pacific. In the Pacific that warm water helps strengthen rainfall and build more clouds. To the northwest of Australia, the annual monsoonal low pressure trough brought wet weather and heavy rain to the region causing more rainfall. One of the dams built also had an impact since the people who built didn't expect many major rainfalls in the future it helped provided even more water for the floods.
2) Social Impact: The floods have held up many peoples lives and made people homeless with no wheres to go. They have put a strain on the resources of Queensland's health services. These floods have also blocked air and land access to affected areas at various times, they delayed the redeployment of many capable first-responders to the areas where they were needed most. There is not much access to safe drinking water, medicine and hygienic food. There are lots of diarrhoeal diseases, the most deadly are staphylococcal endotoxins, which can lead to severe food poisoning, toxic shock or lung disease if inspired.
Economic Impact: Tourism had been impacted as well since there was no access in and out of the area and tourists stuck there wouldn't be able to get home. There was also tons of damage done to homes, infrastructures and many buildings. Also, lots of people lost their homes and things they owned due to either water damage or things being swept away. In a grand total Queensland could run into hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.
Environmental Impact: Luckily some of the great tourists attractions were unscathed such as the Great Barrier Reef, but lots of the agriculture got damaged. Lots of crops got ruined and the water supplies got contaminated and made it unsafe to drink in some areas and use on crops. A number of its Queensland construction and contract mining operations were affected, but some mines weren't greatly affected and were able to run, but they couldn't make much money off of them since nobody else could buy off them or aren't running.
3) This assistance is provided through the joint Australian and State Government's Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA) and applies to the natural disaster declared areas in each state. The recovery was a very slow and complex process and they were bringing in lots of volunteers to help the process.
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