Twenty years ago today, 19th March 2006, category 5 Cyclone Larry was zeroing in on Innisfail, just like Cat 5 Cyclone Narelle is arrowing in on Coen Cape York Peninsula, landfall tomorrow.
At daybreak on that Friday the 20th March ‘06 Larry barrelled into the township and across much of the Cassowary Coast, leaving devastation and ruined lives in it’s wake.
Working for newspaper media, I arrived in a peaceful Innisfail on the 19th and booked into the Riverside Motel … only half of that motel survived the cyclones hammering. Wind gusts, some over 240 km/h, made short work of infrastructure across a large area between Cairns and Townsville.
The story of Cyclone Larry kept me occupied for many months after that fateful emotionally and physically exhausting day. Here (below) I’m featuring just some of the many images I made showing the extent of the cyclone damage and the stoicism of the people of far north Queensland. They were published widely and syndicated around the planet.
It appears that the inhabitants of the Coen area may well tomorrow experience cyclonic winds in excess of Larry’s 240 km/h … and I have a first hand understanding of what that will mean for them. I wish them luck and safety …
Images © Brian Cassey 2006 … From Top … Kate Charleston emerges bloodied from her destroyed Innisfail home … an Innisfail resident tries making a phone call from the wreck of her home … 68 year old Clotilda Lazzarich under the remnants of her Mourilyan home … residents inspect the remains of their Innisfail home … the view from the Riverside Motel Innisfail during the passage of Cyclone Larry … Carol Milini in her saturated roofless Innisfail home … shattered buildings in the township of Mourilyan … a destroyed house near Babinda … Percy (73) and Faye Lowe (69) salvage trinkets from their unroofed Babinda home … as Larry abates Innisfail residents in shock explore the damage to their Innisfail township … a young family leave their destroyed home at Mission Beach … at this InnisfaIl home the only thing left standing was the ‘dunny’ … Judy Stevens salvages essentials from her roofless kitchen …
