In the path of Cyclone Larry

Thanks to the modern wonders of generators, my farmer friend has been able to check in by email. And I can hardly imagine what they're faced with after the cyclone swept through. They were close to where it struck, as they farm near Millaa Millaa.

Here's a bit of what he had to say:

We survived but there is no power. Still hoping to get it back here tomorrow, Sunday. Just got on in to Millaa this afternoon. The place is a wreck up here, it is the worst storm to hit Australia in many decades. Tree damage is shockin round here. The cost will be well over a billion dollars worth of damage. The yard is a wreck and a few church friends are coming up from Cairns tomorrow and help to put a day in the yard, the phones have been down cause of all the power and so no net and stuff. A couple of farmers have not even milked their cows for a couple of days at all until they got generators to run things. The won't have power out this way for weeks; past here even months in some places, things are that bad. There are trees down here everywhere, places in Millaa like a church and the CWA hall and houses have roofs ripped off. The cows suvived OK . Pat out the road (nearby farmer) had a tree fall on 5 cows and had to cut them out after the cyclone. One was dead and had to shoot another one and the other 3 were OK. Innisfail, then Babinda and then Millaa had the worst damage in that order with a few extra places down the coast that were worse then Millaa. Millaa had the worst tree damage. Hope the next email I send will be with power.

Thank goodness the other cyclone forming out to sea has stayed away. But there's a long road ahead for these guys.

Another friend from a nearby town sent photo and video footage of their yard - thankfully they're all OK too, including her parents (dad isn't well).

There's a part of me that wants to catch the next plane and go help out - a BIG part of me. I wish I could be there to help them work and clean and get back to whatever semblance of normalcy is possible. Farmer-friend is relatively lucky - they have a well-set-up place with backup generator power, and haven't been hit as hard as other dairy farmers. Many in the area have gone bust and given up in recent years as the industry takes a dive. Some have killed themselves. Farming's often not an easy life, as ideal as my daydreams tend to make it.

If only teleportation were possible. Beam me there, Scotty! There's not much I can do from the other side of the planet.