Would our Down Under members please say hi so we know you are okay?

[dbhost]

With all the flooding, and now that whopper of a cyclone that hit Australia I guess yesterday, I am a bit concerned over our down under members. So if you would be so kind, just post up and tell us how you are doing... Thanks...

[RodKirby]

Hi Guys,

All is good, in our neck of the woods. We are a long way south of all that bad stuff.

[jackellis]

Australia is a pretty big place. It's what, at least 2,000 kilometers from where the flooding is in Brisbane to where Rod lives in Melbourne?

[RodKirby]

Australia is a pretty big place. It's what, at least 2,000 kilometers from where the flooding is in Brisbane to where Rod lives in Melbourne?

Close enough - 1669Km, 1036 miles.

VERY happy to be this far away!

[Mr__Bill]

We tend to view Australia as being small. We being us up here in the northern half of the globe. Part of that is how maps are drawn and our own conceit.

In actuality the USA is 3.79 million square miles and Australia about 2.97 million square miles. Or roughly the size of the largest 20 US states combined. In contrast India is about 1.27 million square miles and on many maps India and Australia look to be about the same size.

I'm not trying to bash anyone here about not knowing, after all most of us know little of Australia other than what Crocodile Dundee told us and few know just where any of our Aussie members live.

I thank dbhost for bringing up the subject for the thought crossed my mind that if Rod Kirby was anywhere near the floods or cyclone it would be a real test of all that MDF in his shop.

My daughter lives in Sydney and her comment about the weather was. "It's getting to be just like Connecticut, only without all the #$% ^&*$#"!

Bill
on the left coast

How do you tell a tourist in Australia? They are the ones looking left as the bus nails them.

[dbhost]

What I know about Australian geography can fill a thimble... Sorry, sad but true... I do know that I have seen lots of video coming out of there, and what I am seeing is kind of scary. I know we have members from Australia, and I am not sure if they are getting whomped or not... At the very least, I would love to know states / provinces or whatever Australia is broken into so that I can make a little more sense of it...

[RodKirby]

What I know about Australian geography can fill a thimble... Sorry, sad but true... I do know that I have seen lots of video coming out of there, and what I am seeing is kind of scary. I know we have members from Australia, and I am not sure if they are getting whomped or not... At the very least, I would love to know states / provinces or whatever Australia is broken into so that I can make a little more sense of it...

Here you go Most of the coast of Queensland was hit with the cyclone BTW - I was born in Perth.

[RodKirby]

This will give you the scale of this SOB:

Cyclone Yasi superimposed on the USA

[Mr__Bill]

This will give you the scale of this SOB:

Cyclone Yasi superimposed on the USA

Wow, I can certainly see how folks there felt that the wrath of the sea gods was descending upon them.


Bill
thinking our 70" of rain is not really that much

[dbhost]

Looks a lot like Ike, and then Katrina before then... Nasty, nasty, nasty...