Cyclone!

Last week, rumors started bubbling up about a cyclone heading straight for the north Queensland coast. Cyclone Ului had caused at least one death upon landfall in Figi and reportedly millions of dollars in damage. Now, as an international student I found myself quite excited about the possibility of being involved in a natural disaster. Heck, no one else seemed to be freaking out about the category 4 cyclone making landfall over the weekend, why should I? Over the course of the week the Townsville newspaper was just covered with stories about the cyclone: where it is expected to make landfall, how people should prepare, how this compares to other cyclones. Towards Thursday it was narrowed down to Ului making landfall between Townsville and Mackay, about four hours south. On Friday, we had an all college meeting to go over safety and precautionary details. It was Friday evening though, that scientists were safely able to say the cyclone would hit the Whitsundays, about three hours south of Townsville. All of the hype of the cyclone, the biggest one since 1971, was in the end anti-climatic. It dropped to a category 3 when it hit on Sunday and we only got one intense day of rain on Monday and some on Tuesday. I guess my involvement in a major natural disaster will have to take place at to-be- announced date.