"In the beginning"

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily the views of the blog management, (on the other hand, they are not necessarily not the views of the blog management).

No effort has been made to stay within the bounds of the truth in this blog as it has always been the view of the management that the truth should never be allowed to stand in the way of a good story.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Cyclone Larry Strikes.


Once again mother nature has spoken, this time via cyclone Larry, in far north
Queensland
, one can only stand in awe of the power that this lady can unleash.

Larry has made a meal of three towns in the area, wreaking total devastation
with winds of 300 KPH, exceeding those of Katrina I believe, while the
property damage will be enormous at least there has been no loss of life.

The surrounding area is mainly sugar cane and fruit growing, these crops have
been totally destroyed, but again because of the type of farming there has been
very little livestock affected.

The difference is that the towns in Larry’s path were relatively small, no
New Orleans
here, and definitely not below sea level either.

There has been the usual torrential rain during and since that have caused
severe flooding, but again nothing like the total devastation of New Orleans.

Mind you the locals who are now homeless and without Power, fresh water and
food would probably have some trouble seeing the difference.

As is the usual thing there has been an immediate response by the emergency
service people and charity’s like Red Cross etc. the usual politicians have toured
the devastated areas making noises of sympathy and promises of aid.

Sad to say that once the headlines disappear sometimes the promised aid does
too.

It seems truly ironic that at times like this, with floodwaters everywhere, one of
the most pressing needs is for fresh water.

Medical supplies and facilities are stretched to breaking point, but the spirit of
assistance is always there in times of need, restores ones faith in our fellow man
for a time, until some foul deed pops up to make one doubt again.

Along our eastern seaboard at present we have Larry’s devastation at the
northern end, calm and normal in the centre and the Commonwealth Games at
the southern end, enjoying perfect autumn weather.

It’s a big country.

12 comments:

Karyn Lyndon said...

A cyclone in the U.S. is a tornado (as opposed to a hurricane)...and we don't name them...we'd surely run out of names!

Just stopped in from Mike Ashley's blog to say "hi".

LZ Blogger said...

Peter - I am glad this is a ways north of you. This just has to be terrible. The good news is that I heard there was no loss of life. Now that in itself is a miracle! ~ jb///

Big Dave T said...

That cyclone is big news here in the U.S. My wife asked me if any of the "Australian bloggers" had mentioned it.

Seems like the weather is getting more violent all around the world lately.

Merle said...

Hi Peter ~~ Good post on the cyclone.
It must be heartbreaking for the folks concerned. And all the banana and sugar
crops wiped out. Prices will soar.
I tried many times last night to post and again this morning with no luck at all. Very frustrating.

Cliff said...

I'm guessing that unlike New Orleans, the folks from Oz will likely be more like Florida and Texas residents, and know how to respond and get back to work. I'd also bet that if they lived below sea level there, they'd leave for higher ground.
I visited New Orleans once, and when I had to look 'up' to see a ship, I told my wife I'm not staying another night here. It's too dangerous.

Jamie Dawn said...

I saw a bit about this on the news.
Mother Nature can sure get cranky!!!

Sandy Hatcher-Wallace said...

I saw some of the devastation on another blog, but only l dead bird...poor bird.

Luckily no human deaths have been reported and not much coverage of the hurricane over here.

Sandy Hatcher-Wallace said...

"Cucoo" is just a purple fuzzy headed pencil that was a gift to me from my 11 year old grandson...on Valentine's Day of this year. He's become a movie star in my blog and I am often asked "Where's Cucoo?"
He was REALLY kidnapped this past weekend as a hoax on a weekend trip we took(that was yesterday's post, March 20). That was a true story.

It's all for my grandson...the Cucoo thing. I just stick him in there when I have nothing to post.

Glad you stopped to visit and I also welcome new readers.

anonymous jones said...

Hi, found your blog randomly. You are only the second Australian I have ever come across! I'm so sick of the Yanks! Did you know that your 'about me' column is over-lapping your post? Drop by and say hi, sometime!

anonymous-jones.blogspot

Tanya said...

Thanks for visiting my blog. I saw your comment and stopped by yours this morning - and then laughed for half an hour before I thought I really should get back to work....

I'm in Townsville, so all we got of the cyclone was a lot of wind and only a bit of rain (when you consider it was a cyclone, it was only a bit). I was on a mission to take photos of the floods, but that was a non-event. 4m tides were predicted. And I live 50m from the mangroves, so was sure to flood. Cyclone Wati should be interesting - hopefully a lot more rain (our dams need it).

Hale McKay said...

There has been a lot of coverage of "Larry" over on the various cable news and weather networks. That's one nasty storm. As Karyn said, over here cyclones are the same thing as tornados.
....I hope there is better relief for Queensland than here was for New Orleans. You are so right, after the news dies down not much happens.

StringMan said...

I saw the newscasts about it. It looked really nasty. The clip I saw has stuff blowing all around -large objects that the commentator suggested were large parts of buildings.