There is a cyclone heading

towards the north east coast of the country! Help! There is a major disaster at hand! There will flooding! There will be high winds!

I do not for one moment want to suggest that a cyclone, any cyclone, is not a serious weather event. They are. They can do a lot of damage. People can lose everything, including their lives.

The problem here seems to be that, unlike some parts of the world, a cyclone is a rare event. There has not been a cyclone of this forecast magnitude for over fifty years. The vast majority of people will have no memory of such an event. They do not know what to expect. It is the unknown which is as frightening as the reality. 

I am not in the cyclone area. My home is a very long way from that. I am actually hoping for something positive from it. That positive would be water, a lot of water. It is just possible that the potentially devastating floods from a cyclone could also help by adding water to our river system. We need it. This state has not had any rain for weeks and weeks now. We need rain. They are carting water in the hills behind us. Yes, it is that serious.

Of course the cause of the cyclone has been said to be "climate change". The warmer surface temperature of the ocean is apparently the trigger. I won't discount that as a cause - although I wonder what happened last time. 

All this has political ramifications as well. Up until the point where the cyclone looked like causing damage in that part of the country it was possible that we would go to the election on April 12. Now it may not be until May. It would be difficult to hold an election while there is widespread flooding and damage. After April 12 we have Easter and Anzac and neither of those week ends are available. We will be heading into May instead. 

It may suit the government but if they want to avoid bringing down another budget then it will be a six week campaign. That is something they may also want to avoid. My guess is that our Prime Minister will be praying for the cyclone to go south at sea and for the damage to be minimal. He will also be praying for the result of a state election on the other side of the country to still be strongly in his favour.

I am glad I do not live in the likely cyclone zone and I am glad I am not the Prime Minister weighing up when to go to Government House. I hope there is not too much damage caused by the cyclone but, naughtily, I am happy for it to cause concern for the politicians.