Sunday, March 9

Cyclone Alfred has now disintegrated into a group of strong storms, but it has done significant damage to Australia's eastern coast and is continuing to dump rain over the area.

Alfred began as a tropical cyclone in the waters northeast of the state of Queensland, and it quickly moved south while slowly strengthening in the warm waters off the coast. Then, the storm took a sharp turn to the west, making landfall near Brisbane yesterday.

Brisbane, a major Australian city of around 2.7 million people and the capital of Queensland, rarely experiences storms like this due to its low latitude.

However, Alfred brought strong winds when it approached the coast, and the slow-moving storm has flooded the entire region with heavy rain. Large storm surge was also reported, with waves of over 40 feet arriving on some beaches.

Thankfully, the winds weakened before landfall, but the damage done by water was still an issue. Alfred was expected to become the first cyclone since 1974 to make landfall in southeastern Queensland, but it weakened to a tropical low before reaching the coast. In addition, while it was initially expected to arrive near Brisbane, its track slightly shifted to bring the worst conditions to Gold Coast, an area farther from the city.

At least one person was killed after being swept away by floods, and 13 members of the military were injured after a car crash when they were attempting to reach areas in need of help.

In total, over 300,000 homes and businesses are out of power, as winds and floods have wrecked power lines and felled trees. Over 1,000 schools have been shut down, all public transport has been stopped, and air travel in the region has also been halted. Unfortunately, cleanup and recovery operations will not be able to begin for several days-- despite the breaking up of the storm, the remnants of Alfred continue to dump heavy rain over the area.

Cyclones in regions this far south are extremely rare-- the area hit by Alfred has not experienced a cyclone warning since 1990 due to its position south of generally warm waters. However, as climate change worsens, natural disasters and extreme weather events like this will continue to become more frequent as waters warm, creating stronger, deadlier storms in areas currently unprepared for them.

Fact of the Day (Reader's Digest): Startlingly, around 25% of the American population believes that the Sun revolves around the Earth, according to a 2012 study that surveyed over 2,200 people.

Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one. (Malcolm Forbes)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Gregarious (adj, grih-GAIR-ee-us) - Gregarious is used to describe someone who enjoys the company of other people.

In a Sentence: Justin’s gregarious personality made it easy for him to get to know people at the networking event.