Batterings and Crossroads

Poor Queensland (the state of my birth) has been copping another battering. As if the worst floods in 100 years weren’t bad enough Far North Queensland has just been hit by the biggest cyclone to hit Oz since 1919.

To give an idea of how big Cyclone Yasi has been the Brisbane Times has superimposed an image of it against a couple of familiar places in the world.

Yasi in comparison to EuropeAnd America
The only saving grace (and this is a huge one) is the centre of the storm missed major population centres. Places like Cairns and Townsville have a huge cleanup but they don’t have to be rebuilt.
It isn’t all good, smaller centres like Mission Beach, Tully and Cardwell have been pretty much flattened.
But as of this afternoon there were no reported deaths or serious injuries, so miracles do sometimes seem to happen.

Once again there is a personal dimension to this for me. My father lives north of Cairns and one of my brothers has a house at Innisfail which has also been damaged.
I haven’t heard from them since the storm hit and may not for a few days because the power and phones are down in most of the area. Dad is not likely to have suffered any material loss, but Conrad may have.
Remember though before you get too worried on our account “no deaths or serious injuries”.

Actually I was going to talk about something else of a personal nature tonight but I am whacked so it will have to wait till next time.