Cyclone Larry crossed the Queensland coast in the early hours of Monday 20th March, between Innisfail and Mission Beach, 2 hours south of Cairns. It was a category 5 cyclone with wind gusts over 280 kms per hour.
Our farm is two hours north of Cairns at Cape Tribulation, and we breathed a sigh of relief as the cyclone headed south, away from us. We were on the very edge of the cyclone and suffered destructive winds, less than 150 km per hour, which started at about 3.00 am and lasted about 4 hours. We sat on the verandah in the moonlight, watching the trees bending and whipping with the wind, and listening to the roar. It is the sound that frightens you.
We had two German guests staying with us in the bed and breakfast. The night before the cyclone they had asked about going out on the reef. By this time, the dive boat was heading for safe harbour in Cooktown. By 9.00 am the next morning, the road was open and they headed out to Cairns hoping to catch an international flight the following day.
A farm tour of inspection showed that damage to our orchard was minimal. About 6 fruit trees had fallen over and snapped off. And that was it! So different to the previous cyclone - Cyclone Rona which had scored a direct hit on the farm in 1999, and created 6 months of clean up work.
As we listened to the radio, we heard the damage reports coming in further south. We had been in Innisfail the day before for the Annual General Meeting of the Rare Fruit Council of Australia. The motel we had stayed at on Saturday night, lost its roof in the early hours of Monday morning. The annual feast of the senses held on sunday in the main street of Innisfail had been fantastic - a great display of rare fruit and vegetables of the local area. And now all those farms destroyed.
This link below - Serious Weather Events - Bureau of Meteorology will provide the summary of the event, once they get round to putting it up.
http://www.bom.gov.au/announcements/sevwx/
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
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