Cyclone Lazza

For anyone who is hiding under a rock - a bloody big cyclone hit my home state of Queensland yesterday. Apparently this was one of the biggest cyclones to hit Australia in 20, 30, 50, or 100 years, depending on your source.

Strangely I got the news on the morning radio here in Austria. I heard it first in German, and I understood enough to know that it was big and that it hit in Queensland. Not surprisingly, I panicked for about half an hour imagining all sorts of nightmare scenarios with cyclones hitting Brisbane or Cairns or wherever. After my half-hour freakout I listened to the English language bulletin which said that it hit in Innisfail - a town I never really imagined I would ever hear about on the radio in Austria (It was rare enough to hear it mentioned in Brisbane let alone in Europe) - and there was no mention of my hyper-actively imagined massive casualty list which fortunately turned out to be because very few people were injured and so far there has been no reported deaths. Sadly though, it seems there has been a huge amount of property and crop damage in the area which will have a massive economic impact on the region.

Oh and it took less than a day for people to start making the funnies comparing this to the tragedy in New Orleans. I guess that is actually a good thing.