Cyclone Larry

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Severe Tropical Cyclone Larry
Category 5 cyclone ( Australian scale )
Category 4 cyclone ( SSHWS )
Cyclone Larry at its highest intensity on March 19, 2006
Cyclone Larry at its highest intensity on March 19, 2006
Emergence March 18, 2006
resolution March 21, 2006
Peak wind
speed
205  km / h (125  mph ) (10 minutes sustained)
215  km / h (135  mph ) (sustained for 1 minute)
Lowest air pressure 940  hPa ( mbar )
dead 1
Property damage US $ 1.1 billion (2006)
Affected
areas 		Far North Queensland
Season overview:
Australian cyclone season 2005-2006

Cyclone Larry was a tropical cyclone in the Australian cyclone season 2005-2006. The cyclone formed on March 16, 2006 over the South Pacific over the eastern Coral Sea . The system intensified rapidly and steadily moved west. Larry reached the land in Far North Queensland near Innisfail on March 20, 2006 in Category 4 with winds up to 150 mph. Larry did a lot of damage in a short space of time before stalling.

In Queensland, the storm caused damage of approximately 1.5 billion Australian dollars (AUD), or about 1.1 billion US dollars (USD). Ignoring inflation, this made it the most expensive hurricane in Australia to date, even before cyclone Tracy of 1974; Only Cyclone Yasi caused higher property damage in 2011.

Storm course

Cyclone's track
Cyclone Larry reaching the Queensland coast on March 20, 2006

Larry emerged from a low pressure area over the Eastern Coral Sea that was observed by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology on March 16, 2006. The low developed into a tropical cyclone on March 18, 2006 1150 km off the coast of Australia. Larry stepped up to a Category 2 cyclone on the Australian scale before the storm got close enough to shore to warrant issuing mainland storm warnings. It reached its greatest intensity at the top end of Category 4. The Eye of Cyclone Larry crossed the coast near Innisfail between 6:20 am and 7:20 am local time ( AEST ) on March 20 . The preliminary data indicated that the cyclone could have reached 310-320 km / h with sustained winds of 290 km / h and gusts. In the follow-up analysis, however, based on measurements from the weather stations on land, it turned out that cyclone Larry reached maximum wind speeds of 240 km / h in gusts in the area in which he had moved onto land.

During the landfall, a ten-minute wind speed of 200 km / h was recorded in Innisfail; Theoretically, this value corresponds to a one-minute wind speed of around 230 km / h and thus category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale .

Overland, Larry steadily lost his strength, and at 01:00 AEST on March 21, the further inland storm was downgraded to a tropical low. Larry then, moving further west of Queensland, lost his tropical features north of Mount Isa . Cyclone Larry's relatively short existence is due to its train speed; the system moved very quickly over the Coral Sea and disintegrated after about 24 hours on land.

Cyclone Larry was considered the worst cyclone on the Queensland coast since 1931, until it was surpassed by Cyclone Yasi in 2011 . A month later, Cyclone Monica devastated the Queensland coastal area.

Effects

The false color image shows the extent of the flooding caused by Cyclone Larry in the Normanton and Karumba area. The picture above was taken on March 22nd, 2006, the picture below was taken before the storm on March 13th, 2006

The cyclone moved across northwest Queensland on March 22nd and 23rd, bringing heavy rainfall with it. Gereta Station north of Mount Isa recorded 583 mm of rain in 48 hours. There was severe flooding along the Leichhardt River , flooding some cattle farms.

In Cairns , the international airport and port were closed due to the cyclone and all flights were canceled. Innisfail, near where Larry disembarked, was badly damaged. In Babinda , around 30 km north of Innisfail, up to 80% of the buildings were affected.

At the time, Cyclone Larry was the strongest cyclone in Queensland in almost a century. According to Queensland Counter Disaster Rescue Services executive director Frank Pagano, Cyclone Larry was "the most destructive cyclone we will possibly see on the east coast of Queensland in many decades ... there has been great devastation," and Peter Beattie , then Prime Minister of the State compared the threat to Cyclone Tracy .

Australian Prime Minister John Howard noted the "enormous size" of the cyclone and dispatched several UH-60 Black Hawk and CH-47 Chinook helicopters to take part in rescue operations after the storm. In addition, the Australian federal government provided traders affected by the cyclone with a grant of AUD 10,000.

The government of the affected state set up an aid fund; this initially had a volume of 100,000 AUD, of which the Commonwealth Bank initially provided 50,000 AUD, increased its contribution to one million AUD after the damage was assessed. The Queensland Prime Minister asked everyone for support for the people who had suffered from the devastation of the cyclone.

The sugar factory in Mourilyan was also damaged.

The Atherton Tablelands were badly affected by Cyclone Larry due to damage to buildings and failure of the electricity, drinking water and telephone networks. Other cities where the storm caused widespread damage were Silkwood , where 99% of all homes were damaged, and Kurrimine Beach and Mission Beach , where 30% of all homes were each damaged. In Cairns, the largest city in the cyclone-hit region, property damage mostly included torn down power lines and houses damaged by knocked down trees. Strong winds overturned smaller planes at Cairns Airport.

A damage survey of the buildings in the Innisfail region showed that the majority of the contemporary buildings remained structurally intact, but many roller shutters were destroyed. The report noted that most structures had to withstand the cyclone because the winds acting on the buildings were below the threshold required by the region's building standards. Buildings that were built before the tightening of building regulations were more severely damaged by the cyclone. Property damage occurred to around 10,000 houses in total.

Lack of bananas

Agriculture in the region, where more than 80% of Australia's bananas are grown by almost 6,000 employees, has been badly affected. The cyclone destroyed 80–90% of Australia's banana plants. Since bananas are not allowed to be imported into Australia in order to keep vermin away, there was a banana shortage for the rest of the year, which caused prices to rise by 400–500%.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ David Rogers: Australia Shares End Up 0.9%; Miners Surge On Offshore Gains . In: The Wall Street Journal . February 2, 2011. Archived from the original on February 5, 2011. Retrieved on February 5, 2011.
  2. ↑ Banana prices to double after crop devastation (English) . In: The Age , March 21, 2006. Retrieved April 16, 2013. 
  3. ^ Larry was a category four cyclone: ​​BoM (English) , ABC News. March 22, 2007. Archived from the original on March 22, 2007. Retrieved March 15, 2013. 
  4. ↑ Bureau of Meteorology: History for Innisfail, Queensland on Monday, March 20, 2006 ( English ) Wunderground.com. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
  5. ↑ The factor 0.871 is usually used to convert ten-minute to one-minute continuous wind speeds, see Tropical Cyclone Frequently Asked Questions ( English ) Bureau of Meteorology. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
  6. ^ Tropical Cyclone names
  7. ^ Australian Bureau of Meteorology: Summary of Severe Tropical Cyclone Larry . Archived from the original on April 18, 2006. Retrieved March 15, 2013.
  8. ^ Record breaking flood waters in the Gulf . Archived from the original on February 23, 2008. Retrieved October 5, 2006.
  9. ↑ Larry's catastrophic toll (English) . In: The Courier-Mail , March 20, 2006. Retrieved March 2006. 
  10. ↑ Larry's Fury . Archived from the original on August 23, 2006. Retrieved October 23, 2013.
  11. ↑ Massive cyclone hits Australia (English) . Archived from the original on April 5, 2006. Retrieved March 20, 2006. 
  12. ↑ Beattie fears cyclone's power (English) . Archived from the original on February 19, 2008. Retrieved March 20, 2006. 
  13. ↑ TAX LAWS AMENDMENT (2006 MEASURES NO.3) BILL 2006 (English) . Retrieved March 22, 2006. 
  14. ↑ Cyclone appeal fund launched (English) . Archived from the original on February 19, 2008. Retrieved March 20, 2006. 
  15. ↑ a b Cyclone Testing Station . Eng.jcu.edu.au. Archived from the original on October 30, 2008. Retrieved March 20, 2010.
  16. ↑ Evacuations begin amid warnings of 'one of biggest' cyclones (English) . In: Brisbane Times , Fairfax Media, January 31, 2011. Retrieved March 15, 2011. 
  17. ↑ Cyclone devastates banana, sugar crops ( Memento from May 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  18. ↑ Cyclone Larry 'will ruin farmers' . Retrieved March 20, 2006. 
  19. ↑ yes, we have no bananas and Adaptation and mitigation measures for Australia