Last night when I went to bed (safe down here in South East Queensland) I was concerned for friends who are up in Townsville almost under the eye of the cyclone below.
This morning I woke up here on the Goldie to find perfect weather, gentle breeze and blue skies ... nothing to hint at what is going on up there as I write.
I just heard that since hitting land it has downgraded from a Cat 5 to a Cat 3 ... I'm sure that'll make everyone breathe a sigh of relief.
A Finnish friend of mine observed on facebook that this even has helped him to grasp just how vast this country is, with the cyclone being nearly 900Km wide yet in the same state there is no indication of what is happening up there.
That's because despite being in the same state, the cyclone landed about 1600Km away from here.
While it seems that people were lucky in many ways I'd like to raise the point about the size of Queensland, the population sparcity up there and the effect that has on spreading the risk. Almost certainly if there was a more dense population up there then there would have been not only more damage but probably deaths. Politicians should think about that before pumping more people into our country.
In stead we have the beautiful situation of at 6am a woman giving birth in one of the evacuation centers. In the midst of this situation another Queenslander is born.
Queensland is a different place, so we need different thinking to manage ourselves and make the most of what we have here.
best wishes to all up in the cyclone zone ...
1 comment:
Lucky it missed most major centres. Otherwise the toll in life would have been much worse...
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