CYCLONE LARRY - INNISFAIL, NQ., AUSTRALIA, 2006

In 2006, a Catagory 5 Cyclone, Larry, hit the small town of Innisfail on the East Coast of Queensland, devastating all. My baby sister Jane was in the midst of it all. I've just found her letter from a week after it all happened:

Thanks for the e-mails and the calls. Expect this letter to be a bit distracted as our neighbour Wayne has his generator in the chicken house for us to share (we have it on for 2 hours in the morning and two hours at night.) and this is the first time I've used it for the computer. Already have had a wire catch fire and burn out the battery charger. Power won't be restored for probably two weeks. When you see all the lines all over the roads and have to drive through them you can see why.

We've just got in a crane to get the trees off the roof and right now Peter is trying to get me a clear treeless area around the house. I think the trees did protect us and that's why we've come off so lightly. Julia's old house was blown away completely. That's because it was on a hill without trees. So glad now I didn't buy it and lucky she'd already sold it and moved on or her life would be screwed.

South Johnstone is like a bomb site but we now have a house with spectacular views of hills I never knew were around us. We're all saying we're sure they were pushed up during the winds since they certainly were not there before. All you can hear is the sound of chainsaws going constantly and there is a light at the end of the tunnel which I don't think it is a train coming the other way.

My neighbour Mary's father died in the midst of it all and they will have to leave their chaos and fly to Roma for his funeral. This is a last straw for them and it's hit them both bad. Since Larry, they've turned from a wonderfully competent middle-aged couple into these two frail old people. John's Parkinsons has suddenly become severe and stops him from doing a lot of manual stuff, but he still tries. With Mary you can now see the Alzheimers with her continually repeating things and she is focusing on "We are on a list. They will help us." which she says constantly. I got them tarps for the roof damage and am harrassing the relief workers about their needs. I will try to have things all organised by the time they come back so all this will be less of a burden for them.

The kids have gone down to Townsville to Richard. Talei said she wanted to spend her birthday with her dad but I suspect she really wanted some normality. They also evacuated our Japanese exchange students. They were wonderful throughout, saying things like "I've been in lots of earthquakes but this is so much better." and "This is like an earthquake that lasts for hours." and "This is the most amazing experience of my life!" which really lightened the mood when things got really bad.

What's the story on Cyclone Wati? Did it hit Auckland? Did you hear they were calling Wati "Hopawati" as it was stuck up Larrys behind!!!!

Don't worry about us. Life isn't too bad here. The resilience of human nature is shining through and people have become their best. Shame the foreign and national TV crews always interview the loud wingers which makes us all look bad. Everyone is just great and so courageous. You know, we have nurses here still doing their regular shifts when they have no houses or they're roofless. Lots and lots of homeless, by the way, and we have already taken in large numbers of the elderly who've lost everything and don't feel up to starting again. So lucky our Centre has just completed our extensions, ay? It feels like we were psychic and knew all along this was coming.

Well, I can hear the sound of spluttering so will go before the generator cuts out and I lose this.