Flooding all over the world has now started to hit us here too.  We might need to change the way we build our homes.  There are places down south and around the world where flooding is part of life....some places historically will not have basement and house will be built on stilts.  We definitely need to fund research on flooding of our cities.  We also need to be more organised because something this huge require preparation to help people.  500 military personnel is never enough, besides what kind of equipment does the military have that are designed in time of disaster.  We need to look at our military equipments to see if a special adaptation or feature need to be incorporated in case of natural disaster...we need to be able to get thru flooded streets, damage roads, blocked roads etc .... and we need a lot more of it.   Anyway its always seem to be,  the people help themselves because the government does not have the assets.  In the least they need to have crisis plans in place