cyclones

As someone how was born and grew up in this area and was around through some of the worst cyclones in our area in the 1970's I can say that the current population seems to have little grasp of it. I suspect its because of the largely itinerant nature of our population here in Queensland now, noone has been here long enough to grasp it.

I found this footage of some of Cyclone Althea that hit Townsville in the 70's.



in particular some of the comments may be worth considering:

Yep I was 9 and it has remained the most frightening experience of my life. The sound of the cyclone siren and the screaming wind will frighten the crap out of me forever. Several things I remember..the deadly silence when it was finally over after what seemed like hours and probably was, the sight of Castle Hill festooned with roofing iron from all over town and trees everywhere with no leaves.

Wow....thats intense....i grew up in townsville, born there in 1980....u always heard stories of it but u cant get it until u see it.....its kinda relieving to hear some of u say the siren still haunts u, as a child everytime i heard that i froze, the chill u cant describe, people further south dont get it as they dont hear it, i still cant hear it without reverting to a frightened kid, good on ya for sharing this with everyone, tells a story of what NQ'ers go thru

this is why Queensland was for a long time under settled (compared to the southern states) and the folks who lived here were tough and just got about their business, ignoring silly fancy ideas as "something which'll get ripped apart in the next cyclone...."

I don't recall there being 'evacuations of towns' back then, people battened down, looked after their property and neighbors.

Still, it looks to be bigger than Larry and more intense then Tracey. This image from the BOM shows the path




Best wishes to all those in its path.