Vulnerable hit hardest as storms ravage Sydney

The chaos of recent storms across the New South Wales east coast highlights the ineptitude of the capitalist state when it comes to coping with disaster.

The storms raged from 19 to 22 April. The effects were widespread, but it was the most vulnerable who fared the worst.

Countless homeless people were forced to brave the elements, with emergency accommodation and shelters well over capacity. Many waited for hours in the cold for the chance of somewhere warm to sleep or access facilities to dry their wet clothes and blankets.

Eight people died, five of whom were elderly residents of regional areas trapped in flood conditions.

Infrastructure in affected areas was in shambles for days. More than 200,000 homes lost power. Roads and traffic lights went haywire and public transport was severely slowed or shut entirely.

There is a longstanding problem with infrastructure in Sydney. It is not uncommon, for instance, for some metropolitan train stations to flood in heavy rain. Yet successive governments continue to cut spending on public infrastructure, instead plotting the privatisation of public assets like the state’s electricity infrastructure. Sydney’s public transport network is notoriously outdated but billions are pumped into useless projects like the WestConnex toll road.

This is the logic of capitalism. Cost-savings and profit-making always comes before human need.

Ordinary people, though, shine during these times. Hundreds of State Emergency Service volunteers spent hours answering calls for help. Electricity workers – who face uncertainty about their jobs after privatisation – braved treacherous conditions to reconnect power to hundreds of thousands. Community groups sprang into action to offer assistance to those who needed it.

“It’s when our philosophy I think comes to the fore, when we’re going through bad experiences and we all tend to come together and share the nothing we’ve got”, said Jenny Munro, Aboriginal activist in an interview with National Indigenous Television conducted under a dripping wet tarpaulin at the Tent Embassy she helped found in Redfern.

While we listen to politicians mourning the destruction caused by natural disasters such as this, we shouldn’t hold our breath for them to do any of the things needed to mitigate the damage in the future.