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Cyclone Tracy :
Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.
December 1974
On December 20, 1974 the Bureau of Meteorology in Northern Australia noticed a cyclone forming off the coast. They gave it the name - Tracy.
The people at the weather bureau closely watched Tracy for the next few days but did not feel that the cyclone posed a major threat to Darwin. They thought that it would pass well to the north of Darwin.
However early on Christmas Eve, 24 December 1974, Tracy came closer, turned and began to speed towards the city. From midnight until 7am on Christmas Day the cyclone passed directly over Darwin. The wind speed was 217 kilometres per hour and Tracy brought huge rainfall.
Houses and other buildings were blown apart, 49 people died in the city and another 16 were drowned at sea. Seven out of every ten of Darwin's homes were destroyed or severely damaged. Communications, power, water and sewerage services were all broken.
Emergency committees worked to provide accommodation, food and clothing to all those people whose houses had been destroyed or damaged. Australia's defence forces took a major role in cleaning up the city and suburbs.
Many people were evacuated because there was so little food and shelter for them. There was a threat of disease too because sewerage systems had been destroyed. In all, 25 000 people were evacuated to southern cities.
Between 1975 and 1976 over 150
million dollars was spent to build or repair more than 2 500 homes
as well as other many other buildings.
Click here to find out more about Cyclone Tracy
The swirling
winds of a cyclone seen from a space shuttle
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Cyclone
Tracy (2000).
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Updated 14 April 2002