Bibliography

Cyclone Tracy Pitures. (2004). Retrieved September 2, 2012, from Enjoy Darwin: http://www.enjoy-darwin.com/cyclone-tracy-pictures.html

Cycole Tracy. (2007). Retrieved september 6, 2012, from Northern Territory Collection: http://ntlapp.nt.gov.au/tracy/

1974 Cyclonne Tracy. (2007-2012). Retrieved September 03, 2012, from Enjoy Darwin: http://www.enjoy-darwin.com/cyclone-tracy.html

Response to Cyclone Tracy . (2010). Retrieved September 7, 2012, from Cyclone tracy: http://ntlapp.nt.gov.au/tracy/basic/Post.html

Cyclone Tracy Hit Darwin. (2012). Retrieved August 29, 2012, from Australian Government: http://www.ga.gov.au/hazards/our-capabilities/case-studies/what-would-happen-if-cyclone-tracy-hit-darwin-in-2008.html

Cyclone Tracy, 1974. (2012). Retrieved September 6, 2012, from Commonwealth Government Records about the Northern Territory: http://www.naa.gov.au/naaresources/publications/research_guides/nt-guide/chapter6/index.html

Cyclone Tracy, Darwin – Fact sheet 176. (2012). Retrieved september 1, 2012, from Your story, our history: http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/fact-sheets/fs176.aspx

Severe Tropical Cyclone Tracy. (2012). Retrieved September 4, 2012, from Bureau of meteorology: http://www.bom.gov.au/cyclone/history/tracy.shtml

By Nikki Henderson

Different Country or time?

I did some research and I wanted to know what would happen if cyclone Tracy hit Darwin today (in 2012). I did some research and concluded that Darwin’s population is almost triple now then it was back in 1974. This would mean a lot more people would probably get injured and killed. It wold also mean there would be a lot more infrastructures and houses to get ruined, there for leading to millions of dollars more damage. But the houses and infrastructures in these days would be made of better materials and would have been better built then back in 1974. This could then result in stronger buildings and foundations, which could result in less damage of houses.

When I thought about all the damage that cyclone Tracy caused, I started to think what terrible damage it would do to an undeveloped county, such as Zimbabwe. The houses in Zimbabwe are mostly just little shacks or cabins. When the cyclone would have hit Zimbabwe, it would have destroyed all the little shacks, throwing debris everywhere and destroying the sewage service and others. After the cyclone there would be many more injured and dead people. The hospitals wouldn’t have been as organised as Darwin’s were and wouldn’t be able to cope with the sudden rush of injured people . Since Zimbabwe is a poor, developing country, evacuation would be very slow. This could cause disease to spread among the country causing even more problems.

This is a picture of a cyclone in Zimbabwe. This was only a category 3 cyclone and Darwin was a category 4 cyclone.

Cyclone Tracy

Here is some video I found. I didn’t take this, but i wanted you to see the extent of the damage that Cyclone Tracy caused to Darwin. You will now be able to understand our devastation on Christmas day.

Major General Alan Stretton

When I was researching about cyclone Tracy, I wanted to know who organised all the evacuation of Darwin and the restoration of it. This is what I found out….
In 1974 Alan Stretton was appointed  the Director-General of the Natural Disasters Organisation, This wold make him in charge of all the natural disaster in Australia.

On Christmas Day in 1974 he flew to Darwin, where Cyclone Tracy had just hit. Under Stretton’s leadership, 36,000 people were evacuated and essential services were restored. He led  the evacuation very well and helped rescue many lives.

At the age of 53 Stretton received the Australian of the year award, for his amazing leader ship during the evacuation of cyclone Tracy. When Stretton was being presented with is award the prime minister at the time, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, described cyclone Tracy as a ‘baptism of fire’ for the natural disaster organisation.

Once Stretton had received his award he he insisted that he was just a leader of a team and that everyone had played a role. This is what he said.

‘There should be 45,000 awards so that one could be awarded to each of the people of Darwin.’

  A painting of Major General Alan Stretton
The people of Darwin being evacuated under Major General Alan Stretton direction

What Caused Cyclone Tracy?

I had never know how a cyclone developed and I was very curious. Finally I found out how. Cyclone Tracy began as a small tropical storm days before it hit Darwin. Up until a few hours before, it was not expected to affect us in Darwin, but it then there was an unexpected turn and it headed straight for Darwin.

Cyclone Tracy began as a tropical depression in the Arafura Sea, north of Darwin. It continued to developed into a small, but very intense tropical storm. This then developed into an extremely powerful, category four cyclone!

A space picture of cyclone Tracy

Effects of Cyclone Tracy

After the cyclone I found out a lot more about the effects of cyclone Tracy. I wanted to find out who had helped us, what the effects were and what economically happened because of cyclone Tracy.

Immediate effect of Cyclone Tracy
the intermediate effects of cyclone Tracy are that Buildings and homes were destroyed. It cost Darwin extremely large amounts of money for rebuilding. Over 50 people were killed and hundreds were injured. Altogether 30000 people were left homeless and electricity failed. There was barely any foods and no fresh water, and many people feared that disease would break out.

Social Impact
Darwin needed a lot of help when this disaster happened. They needed help to rescue people, rebuild houses, fix services and bring fresh water, food, supply donations, medical supplies, building materials and clothing. These are organisations are the one that helped Darwin: National Disasters Organisation, Darwin’s Emergency Service, RAAF, Qantas, TAA, Ansett Airways, RAF, RNZAF, US Airforce and Darwin’s Reconstruction Committee. Medical teams helped with the sick and $250 million dollars was donated to Darwin for reconstruction.

Economic Impact
Cyclone Tracy made the government of Australia aware that Darwin and the Northern Territory needed their own government. Before Cyclone Tracy  it was governed entirely from Canberra. Because of Tracy, the Northern Territory was given self-government, meaning they had a lot more power in making decisions that affected them.

Environmental impact
I could see many environmental impacts all around me just at home, things  I saw were things like trees that had been uprooted and animal habitats that has been destroyed. I also learnt that with such a devastating disaster, the food chain was broken, and it took many months before food chain order was restored .The beaches were also littered with decides marine animals and rubbish everywhere.
Here are some of Cyclone Tracy’s environmental impact

• litter in the ocean, destroying animals’ habitats
• trees were uprooted and turned over
• metal, glass and other debris was thrown all over town
• gardens  were      pulled out of the ground

9.52 am 25th december                            The Rowland family in Darwin

After the Cyclone

At about 7:00am the wind started too subsided but it was still gusting and raining.  Dads leg was quite bad and he had lost quite a bit of blood. We decided we would have to take him to the hospital to get it stitched up, but because of horrendous weather conditions we would have to wait a bit longer because the road conditions were so terrible.

All around us houses had been torn apart. We finally drove to the hospital and when we arrived it was packed. We found out that the cyclone had killed over 50 people. I also caused $837 million in damage. It had destroyed over 70% of houses leaving 41,000 out of the 47,000 people in the city homeless. There where people all around the hospital with head injuries, Brocken limbs and many more. Dad got stitched up and we headed back to what was left of our home.

When we arrived home we saw our neighbors and found out that they are evacuating the city by air and ground. We were in tears, our house had been ripped to pieces. We then had to drive to the airport where they had planes on standby to evacuate people. There was no sewage services, clean water, food or any other types of services we needed to live, so we had to leave. We waited at the airport for hours. Weather conditions still weren’t good. Rescue planes started to land bringing rescue services, temporary housing and food and water.

After what felt like ages we got on a plane.  Everyone was stuffed in there, people were even standing up. We were getting flown to Sydney where we would stay without aunty and uncle, until it was safe to go and rebuild our house. It was interesting hearing everyone’s different stories about the cyclone. I also learnt that many people were not going to return to their house and were going to stay in Sydney.

“One quantas Jumbo jet left for Darwin Airport with nearily 700 people on just one flight. This is a nuber stood as a record for may years” said ABC reporter Gary Treble

The after effect of a row of houses in Darwin

IMPACT!!!

The noise from the cyclone was horrendous, it sounded like a train was passing through the house. The glass had already been blown out of all the windows and had started to pull the tiles of our roof. Dad and mum made the decision that we would all move out and spend the night in the car. The car was faced into the wind to stop it from being blown away. One by one dad ran us to the car. As I stepped out of the house the wind nearly knocked me of my feet. Eventually we were all in the car.

At twelve o’clock the eye of the storm passed over Darwin. It was dark and all I could see was rooves being flung off houses, trees being snapped and rain waters rising around us. Dad had a deep cut on his leg from when a large piece of glass had flown of a window and gone into his leg.  The storm then went on all the way till 7:00am on Christmas day. We watch from our car as the cyclone destroyed our house and many more houses along our street. All around us electricity poles were falling down, the sewerage drains were over flowing and streets were flooding.

The anemometer at Darwin Airport recorded the wind reached 217 km/h before the instrument itself got blown away. Other people estimated that at the peak of the storm wind reached 300 km/h!!

2am in the city of Darwin              This photo shows the impact of the cyclone

Preparation…

It was Christmas Eve when the cyclone hit. I was at home with my mum, my dad and my sister Jess.  We had been warned on the radio that a cyclone was approaching, but we had had warnings about cyclones before and they had never come, so we as well as the rest of Darwin weren’t too worried.

By 6pm the rain started to increase from a drizzle, too a steady pour with strong winds starting to pick up. But there was still no danger of a life threading cyclone.

Darwin’s city population had increased dramatically in the twenty years leading up to the cyclone and many of the houses, including ours weren’t able to withstand the impact on the cyclone. The city was told to evacuate, but they did not listen and many just continued to prepare and even go to Christmas parties, despite the terrible wind and rain.

By 9pm the storm had started to hit and I could see large flashes of lights in the distance. The wind had picked up dramatically and people, as well as us started to prepare for a wild night. But we had no idea just how wild it would be.

At about 10pm we started to get  worried. Dad went round the house and closed all the windows and locked the door. We continued to listen to the radio but it started to get all crackly so we had to turn it off. We then just had to wait together while the storm got worst.

                                                  A picture of cyclone Tracy approaching Darwin

Welcome!

My name is Nikki and I was in the 1974 Cyclone named Cyclone Tracy. In this blog I will talk about my preparations for the cyclone, what happened during the cyclone and the effect the cyclone had once it left. I will also include the causes of the natural disaster, the effects of the natural disaster and the response to the event.

I lived in the city of Darwin when the cyclone hit. Darwin is in the county of australia, in the state Northern Territory. Its coordinates are 12.4667° S, 130.8333° E.

A map of Austrlia (red dot is darwin)                                          Map of Darwin