Devastating Tracy
Cyclone Tracy
The devastation cyclone Tracy caused.
To the right is a picture of the Destructive path that cyclone Tracy had chosen. This was on Christmas Eve 1974 and was a Category 3 Hurricane. This left 41,000 out of the 47,000 inhabitants of the city homeless prior to landfall and required the evacuation of over 30,000 people and killed 71 people and caused 800 million US Dollars.
Most of Darwin's population was evacuated to Adelaide, Whyalla, Alice Springs and Sydney, and many never returned to the city. Those who remained in Darwin faced the threat of several diseases due to much of the city being without water, electricity or basic sanitation. An initial response was to vaccinate residents for typhoid and cholera. Approximately 30,000 people were homeless, and were forced to seek shelter in several makeshift housing and emergency centres that lacked proper hygienic conditions. This was in no doubt the worst tropical cyclone to hit Australia and hopefully it stays that way.