THE SHIPPING NEWS

On the news last night they were saying that thousands were being evacutated from Queensland, between Bowen and Mackay because of this cyclone which will be causing quite a bit of damage in the next day or so.

Often these warnings and evacuations become a bit of a fizzler as the cyclone diminishes in ferocity by the time it hits landfall.  When we listened to the news, Papa and I looked at each other and remembered the movie THE SHIPPING NEWS.

In the film a journalist who is finding it difficult to find news to write about for the local paper goes for a walk along the beach with the editor of the newspaper.  The editor wants to teach the journalist how to find news that he can write about.

As they are walking along the beach, the editor says to the journalist, "Look over there!  What do you see?"

The journalist looks out over the sea to the horizon and sees some cloud.  "I see some cloud." says the journalist to the editor.

"No you don't!" says the editor.  "What you see is a storm approaching our town.  You see a storm that is going to cause havoc among the citizens of our town.  You see that we may need sandbags for the flooding that will ensue.  You see that we may need to call out the army to help with evacuations."

"But what if there's no storm?" asks the journalist.

"In that case," said the editor, "the headlines on the front page of the newspaper will say, "Storm bypasses town and thousands saved from evacuation and flooding."

But then Papa and I looked back at the television news again and realized that this just might hit landfall and cause a lot of damage.

I've just been on to the weather map and here are the warnings.

QUEENSLAND

MON 17:07 EST: Flood Warning for the Pioneer River
MON 17:04 EST: Warning zone: Cardwell to St Lawrence inc Tville, Mackay, Whitsunday Is & inland inc Charters T'wrs. Watch: inland to Lucinda/Pentland
MON 16:34 EST: Hurricane Force Wind Warning for Townsville, Mackay Coasts & Great Barrier Reef Offshore. Gales for Capricornia. Strong Winds for Cairns
MON 16:14 EST: Initial Moderate Flood Warning for the Don River
MON 11:52 EST: Flood Warning for the Ross, Bohle and Black Rivers,Bluewater Creek, Haughton, Lower Burdekin, Don, Proserpine and Pioneer Rivers
MON 11:06 EST: Severe Weather Warning (Damaging Winds) for the North Tropical Coast and Tablelands
MON 10:22 EST: Flood Warning for the Fitzroy River
MON 07:21 EST: Final Flood Warning for the Macintyre River

Uncle Aaron and family are down in Victoria at the moment so I'm hoping that Janet's family will check their property up in Mackay today and make sure there are no tables, chairs, toys etc lying around the place that could cause damage if they are picked up by the wind and thrown all around the place.

Thankfully, we will be fine here.  The forecast is for some heavy rain over the next few days but I don't think the winds are going to be too bad.

Will keep you up to date with all the happenings.

xxxNan