Fearsome photos indeed. The houses smashed to kindling are one thing (and how bizarre is it to see a house with the inside contents standing but the walls gone?) but I'm most affected by all those downed and uprooted trees. The force of the destruction is truly horrifying, and I'm very grateful that apparently no one was seriously hurt, and that people feel themselves able to soldier on, and even to joke about it. :)
It wasn't actually 'less' (being downgraded from winds of 320kmh/hr to 295kmh/hr made no negligible difference, as the BOM reported) - it still hit as a strong Cat 5. It's just that through preparedness and luck, no one has been reported in terms of loss of life or serious injury. But that's not because the cyclone wasn't a Cat 5, it's because of preparedness.
Aha, the news articles I saw were acting like it was nowhere near the holy-crap-disaster-clone they'd expected it to be, hence it being downgraded so quickly.
It's amazing how well prepared everybody was. But like people above said, they almost seem to take it in good humour.
(I have wanted to rage at my FB list you don't know how much for spamming about Egypt but not saying a peep about this, as if a cyclone hitting Australia is insignificant by comparison, yanno?)
Ah, yeah; I'm not amazed. All major events in Australia - in a Bill Bryson book - one year rated less than bananas for newsworthy articles. Oh, and Burkina Faso.
The photos remind me of Hurricanes Andrew (1992, Florida), and Katrina. I was giddy when I heard there'd been no deaths attributed to the storm (at last I heard anyway).
I just laughed so hard at the duck hand it made my headache worse, which of course meant I had to drag John over to show him.
There has been no coverage of it here, which drives me nuts because a vast handful of my online circle lives in Australia. I'd like to know how they're doing without a continuous rant of prodding from my end.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2011-02-03 02:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-03 02:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-03 04:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-03 06:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-03 11:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-04 12:02 am (UTC)It's amazing how well prepared everybody was. But like people above said, they almost seem to take it in good humour.
(I have wanted to rage at my FB list you don't know how much for spamming about Egypt but not saying a peep about this, as if a cyclone hitting Australia is insignificant by comparison, yanno?)
no subject
Date: 2011-02-03 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-03 11:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-04 03:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-04 06:52 am (UTC)The photos remind me of Hurricanes Andrew (1992, Florida), and Katrina. I was giddy when I heard there'd been no deaths attributed to the storm (at last I heard anyway).
Have you heard from your cousin?
no subject
Date: 2011-02-05 08:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-05 05:52 am (UTC)There has been no coverage of it here, which drives me nuts because a vast handful of my online circle lives in Australia. I'd like to know how they're doing without a continuous rant of prodding from my end.
I still can't get over how big Yasi was...