Cyclone Devastation

A Mission Beach resident rescues his clock, which stopped when the storm hit.

Australia has just endured a fierce tropical cyclone, which caused tremendous havoc in Northern Queensland. It might be worth putting this into context for some of our overseas readers.

Brisbane is around 1000kms (624 miles) north of Sydney. The Cyclone struck the coast a further 1700kms North of Brisbane.

This is not a heavily populated region, thankfully, but there are people there. Cairns, the major city of the region has around 60,000 people.

Significantly it is also a key sugars cane and banana growing region, much of the crop being devastated by the cyclone.

Just a few points about this wild tropical storm:

It made landfall as a category five storm with wind gusts up to 290kph (180mph).

The cyclone weakened to 150kmh as it moved inland.

In Innisfail, (Pop. 8100) about a third of the houses reported have lost their roofs.

According to early reports the repair bill for homes, businesses and farms devastated by Cyclone Larry could top $1 billion.

At least $500 million will be required to assist the banana and sugar cane recovery.

There are many interesting observations and comments on the Sydney Morning Herald News Blog.

The small coastal community of Mission Beach was one of the first to feel the impact of Cyclone Larry.