Bye Bye Bananas

Have you checked ABC's Cyclone Yasi Live blog yet? It is good to see the use of social networking infrastructure to disseminate information while the towns along the Queensland coast still have power & mobile phone coverage. Good luck Queenslanders and I hope you manage to survive this cyclone without major damage and loss of life!

It was awesome to look at the Cyclone Comparison  information and compare the estimated rainfall of Yasi (1000mm, 295 kph winds predicted to that of Hurricane Katrina 380mm rainfall, 240kph winds).
I wonder what those "experts" or politicians who suggested that large portions of farmers and population move north due to drought think now? (2006?) It seems to me that the Tropical North of the country has huge variations in climate, even greater than the 30 degree temperature swings that Melbourne suffers.
Imagine designing a city to cope with 1000mm downpours, 300 kmph winds, baking heat and long periods of drought as well. The infrastructure costs would be enormous.
I think I'll have to buy up a big load of bananas this week and freeze them. Last time Larry took bananas off my menu for 6-8 months!