Dodging bullets...err natural disasters

Queensland "dodged a bullet" last week when a category 5 (the highest level) cyclone hit the northern part of the State. Theo and I only found out about it after he travelled up north to Mackay to set up for an art exhibition. (Before I accepted my transfer to Brisbane a few months ago, Theo had applied for a "concept development" arts grant to develop an awesome multi-media idea he's been working on. (See his website.) He's been developing this for months, and this week was to be his exhibition open to the public. He flew to Mackay on Monday to prepare for it, then I was supposed to fly in on Wednesday for the show that night.

By the time he arrived, though, pretty much everyone realized there was a cyclone heading for that part of the State. After speaking to the grant people, they decided to move up the date of the exhibition to Tuesday, since the cyclone was expected to arrive Wednesday night.



Then after further information developed and evacuations began to be announced, the exhibition was cancelled until further notice. Theo then had to scamper to cancel his hotel room and get a flight home before the airlines shut down. So within about 36 hours, he had been through a roller coaster of events, but we were both glad to have him home and safe at the end of it. It was kind of funny to see the evacuation maps, as we would have clearly been evacuated if we still lived there. Our rental house was located right below the words "North Mackay" in the map below.



The cyclone hit pretty much when and where it was predicted, although with much less damage than was expected. Fortunately no lives were lost and only a few small towns had major damage.

Forecasters expect a higher number of cyclones than normal this season. And more rainfall too... so possibly more flooding events. The "best" may be yet to come!