Garry Youngberry

ON LOCATION

Recalling highs and lows

For Channel 9 presenter Garry Youngberry, 2017 has been a dramatic year for weather

As a weather presenter who frequently ventures out of the studio and into the field, I’m most often asked, “What’s it like to be in a severe tropical cyclone?”

Well, no cyclone is the same, but I can guarantee the higher the category of the storm, the greater the level of fear you will feel.

I have been in every tropical cyclone to affect Queensland in the past nine years, and there are a few that stand out. TC Yasi for its sheer size and power, but Debbie is still very fresh in my mind. On March 23, 2017, a tropical low formed in the Coral Sea. It would become Queensland’s deadliest tropical cyclone in more than 40 years.

On March 26, TC Debbie made landfall around noon at Airlie Beach as a Category 4 Severe Tropical Cyclone. It was the strongest TC to impact Queensland since TC Yasi in 2011.

I was right in the core of Debbie as she impacted Airlie Beach. As wind gusts reached 260km/h, our team of Brian Russell, cameraman and audio, Ian Flemming, technician and satellite operator, and myself took shelter in an apartment on the northeast side of the town.

The roar of winds and sheer noise levels of a cyclone are hard to explain. Often people associate it with a jet aircraft taking off, but it is also relentless. Debbie screamed through the night and into the next day, by which time we had no electricity and no water.

One extremely uncomfortable factor of any cyclone is the 100 per cent humidity. Moisture is not only running down the walls of your

apartment but dripping off the ceiling. Everything becomes wet and will stay that way for days. Your clothes, your bed linen, everything.

The next challenge is the smell, and after that it is one challenge after another as you try to work and supply everyone with information from television to radio and social media, while you are functioning on very little, if any, sleep.

Communication is something we tend to take for granted, but as the crisis rolls on, the batteryhungry devices we all rely on start to run low.

Thankfully, my team of

Brian and Flemmo have been here before and know how to cope in these situations, but after a few days of no water, no electricity and diminishing supplies, it starts to wear thin.

We eventually started running out of fuel to power our generator, which was a huge concern. Have you ever tried to siphon fuel from a late-model car? It’s near impossible. These were just some of the challenges we faced each day as we worked to maintain a flow of pictures and stories to not only the Nine Network but many media outlets.

That was just round one of TC Debbie. As cyclones make landfall and the eye of the storm passes, they usually weaken. But not Debbie. Her tail was the most intense I have ever witnessed.

Round two of Debbie caught many by surprise and will be talked about for generations to come. Especially, if I can set the scene, of three Channel 9 employees who hadn’t showered for several days. Under the cover of darkness the three of us, Brian, Flemmo and myself, decided to walk out on the front deck of the apartment in our jocks to shower, at last, in the torrential rain.

This was a great idea under darkness, until a massive lightning bolt lit up the skies and turned it into daylight. Let’s just say the next door neighbours got a fright with three strange men standing on the veranda in their underwear as the cyclone still raged.

Sometimes you have to laugh to get through these situations. But it does have an effect on you after a while, seeing the devastation and loss of life. Also knowing that I will be back to my comfortable environment in a week or so, while these poor people will

THE NEIGHBOURS GOT A FRIGHT TO SEE THREE STRANGE MEN IN THEIR UNDERWEAR

live this over and over again for months, years and in some cases forever.

As Debbie continued her path inland and south, the damage bill mounted into the billions – $2.4 billion to be precise. The mental and emotional cost was even greater, and still continues as people try to rebuild, not only their homes but their lives, and also to come to terms with the loss of 14 lives from this disaster.

So let’s just pray this coming cyclone season is a safe and uneventful one.

Please stay safe over Christmas and the New Year and, as a New Year’s resolution, perhaps try to have a better understanding of the weather.