[Dixielandjazz] Re: A Note of safe wishes for our mates down under

[Graham Martin]

G'day guys,

I too wish to thank those listmates who were concerned about how we Aussies were faring in cyclone Larry. But like Bill Haesler said, although I may have been the closest, it was still too far away for us to feel any affects. Like they say, 'Australia is a big country'!

It has not been an unusually strong hurricane season but this particular one (Larry) was a cat 5. Even Tracy, the cyclone that flattened Darwin was only a cat 4. The cyclone season is not over yet and we usually get a few buzzing the top end. They normally come in from the Coral Sea, move across the Top End and then go down the West Coast. The direction they take depends on a number of factors that I don't fully understand. I'm not even sure the weather people do, although they did an excellent job with their predictions for Larry.

Reports from Innisfail say that one in three houses has sustained substantial damage. Just looking at the TV coverage it would seem they are mostly the older 'Queenslanders' style houses - i.e. Built on stumps, with weatherboard cladding and Corrugated Iron roofs - which is not the best design to resist a cyclone. News is still coming in and we will not really know until they get themselves a bit better organised with the support teams. Innisfail is still cut off due to fallen trees and some flooding from the rain falling in the ranges.
 
Larry had a pressure registered at 950hPa at its lowest point, with winds of up to 290km/h. By comparison, Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans last year, was recorded at 902hPa with winds of 280km/h. Larry also surpassed in size and intensity of the cat 4 cyclone that wrecked Darwin in 1974, but the lessons learnt from Cyclone Tracy meant there was far less destruction in far north Queensland from Larry - certainly the newer building construction. While the winds from Larry were the same level as Cyclone Tracy, the damage to buildings was considerably less because of strict building standards introduced into tropical parts of Australia, and Australia generally, in the past two decades. Actually I have an strong personal interest in this because the implementation of those new building standards gave me a training job for about the last 12 years. Unfortunately for me, but fortunately for all Australians those new building regulation now seem to be understood. I must have worked myself out of a job!  I actually did the last of my training of local council inspectors in the Cairns/Innisfail area, where Larry struck, only two years ago when I first moved back to Queensland. 

In one way cyclone Larry may be good news in that it may indicate a La Nina cycle. The climate experts are saying that we are seeing a change which is possibly due to the Pacific weather system shifting from drought-inducing El Nino pattern to the wetter La Nina cycle. Parts of Australia have been subjected to a four-year long drought and we are observing water restrictions here in South East Queensland.  It was beginning to look as though we would have to build some water storage dams closer to the coast because there has been no rain presently falling in the catchment areas of the existing dams.

So thanks again guys for the concern but it is the North Queenslanders who were affected. Folks in the rest of Australia will just not be able to afford bananas, avocados or sugar because those crops have been decimated. The state and federal governments seem to be making a pretty good fist of helping folks out. Certainly the initial evacuation was very efficient despite the very short notice.

Best,

Grah 

Graham Martin
Email: grahmartin at bigpond.com
Website: http://tromjazz.netfirms.com
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Queensland 4165
AUSTRALIA
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