[TMIC] Re:OT, OT, OT ~ Our friends in Australia

[ROSEOFRENO]

Bernie and Jan ~     I checked on Errol......here is a part of the letter I received from him.............we need to hear from Gilly....and Karyne....   Hello Lynn,                        Yep we are ok  here, the cyclone crossed the coast around 7:00 am this morning at Inisfail which is about 1000 miles north of here.    It had an eye of around 20 miles and travelled at 30 kilometres per hour (about 18 miles per hour) was rated at category five when it crossed the coast.   Much damage, many buildings damaged and a lot or flora damage also.   Hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to sugar cane, bananas and other tropical fruit crops in the area, much flooding so the road and rail are out for a while.    Around 50.000 properties without power and the only communications are by cell phones or battery amateur radio.   The Aircraft from my son's squadron (F111 recon aircraft) flew over the hit areas after the beast had passed taking aerial photography to do an initial assessment of damage etc.   No word of human damage or injuries.   I think the folk up there are well  prepared for these bad events.   There is another cyclone brewing about 2000 kilometres (1200 miles) east of the coast again, so we will see what it gets up to as it progresses.                        Only a bit of wind here and cloud, but alas no rain.   We need lots of rain desparetely, water storages are down to 32 %,