Monday, March 20, 2006

Larry

Cyclone Larry hit the Australia east coast yesterday morning--scary stuff. Fortunately for me, I am in Sydney, which is very, very far away from where it hit. It hit up in the north, closer to Cairns and Townsville. Below is a map to give you help you out:


Another way to think about it is that the drive from Sydney to Townsville is about 24 hours. That's like driving from Ann Arbor to Orlando, Florida. Australia is a big country, no?

The bad news for me is that the area that was hit hardest was the area where I was planning to go in April. I was hoping to spend some time sailing on the Whitsunday Islands and then work on a banana farm for a few weeks before heading to Cairns. But really the possibility that I might have to change my travel plans is not really something I am too concerned about when compared to the fact that the cyclone has done some pretty major destruction to people's homes and businesses.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I knew you were far away, but was still relieved to hear from you. I have some friends who live up near Cairns, and they said that the damage is spotty - it's either total or nonexistent. That's true of at least one friend whose ranch was directly on Larry's path, so you might have your trip yet, although, as you said, it's hard to be thinking about such things when people have lost everything.

Anonymous said...

"Australia is a big country, no?"

What is that? who have you been talking to over there?

Anonymous said...

MATT DAMON!!!