DARWIN WIPED OUT - By Tracy, the killer cyclone
by Michael Gawenda
At least 49 people died in the cyclone which smashed Darwin yesterday.
Offiicials say the toll could reach 100 after rescuers search rubble.
Cyclone Tracy has destroyed or badly damaged 95 per cent of the city.
Officials estimate up to 30,000 of the city's 40,000 people are homeless.
All power is off. There is no fresh water. Makeshift camps are being set up.
Tracy's 240 kmh (150 mph) winds sank two ships and swept five others aground in Darwin harbor.
The city's hospital is a wreck - with the roof ripped off.
The hospital patients were taken to safer places.
The police station and post ofice also are wrecked.
All hangars and 80 per cent of the terminal buildings are smashed.
Runways are strewn with rubble.
Tracy hit the city at 4 a.m. yesterday, flattening hundreds of houses.
Many people were killed when they tried to get away from their houses in cars.
The winds picked up the cars and hurdled them from the roads.
Phone and teleprinter links with the city were cut.
Hundreds of shocked people wandered wreckage-jumbled streets.
The acting Prime Minister, Dr. Cairns, said last night, This is a national disaster."
He will fly to Darwin today.
A big Federal Government relief operation was underway last night.
A pilot who flew over the city said it was wrecked. Roofs were ripped from houses.
Cars and caravans were overturned.
In one of the last phone calls out before Tracy hit, Sgt. Griffith of Darwin police said the wind was blowing "something terribly".
"We are not sure what has happened since midnight as we called our vehicles in off the road."
He said houses were breaking up.
The National Disaster Organisation director-general, Maj.-Gen. A. B. Stretton, said it could be Australia's worst disaster.
A PMG engineer in Darwin told Channel 7 by phone late last night, "The cyclone hit like a bomb."
The call came in a "freak" hook-up to the only line in Darwin still operating, a technician's line.
The man said, "It was the most terrifying experience of my life."
Tracy was first spotted on Saturday by a U.S. satellite.
Cyclone warning hooters began blasting in Darwin about noon Tuesday - and from then the city had to sit and wait.
The cyclone was heading south through remote country in the Northern Territory last night and appeared to be dying out.
People worked frantically late last night to clear Darwin airport runways of rubble to allow emergency planes.
The Navy ordered crews of HMAS Melbourne, Brisbane, Stuart and Moresby to return to their ships to sail to Darwin today.
The Melbourne will take helicopters and other general supplies.
Other Navy ships including the Stalwart, the Vendetta and the Hobart, will leave Sydney for Darwin as soon as possible.
Red Cross staff from Sydney and Brisbane will fly in drugs today.
Gen. Stretton and the Northern Development Minister, Dr. Patterson, arrived last night.
A RAAF Hercules was on the way from Richmond with a medical team and equipment.
All three Services and the Red Cross heve been asked to assemble blankets, clothes and general stores.
The path of Tracy, the killer cyclone
Cyclone Tracy, which hit Darwin at 4 a.m. yesterday, was first noticed on Saturday when it was 350 kilometres (about 220 miles) north-east of the city.
Reports from U.S. Essa-8 and Noaa-4, showed a west-south-west movement and top priority warnings were issued by the Darwin weather bureau.
At midday on Tuesday, the bureau said Tracy was getting close to Darwin.
Cyclone-warning hooters began to blast throughout the city.
From then on, it was watch and wait.
The Darwin bureau was wrecked by the cyclone, but just before it finished transmitting, winds of up to 140 knots were reported.
At midday yesterday, the WA weather bureau put the cyclone 60 km (about 40 miles) east-south-east of Darwin, moving at about 10 kmh (6 mph).
It developed in the Arafura Sea and was proclaimed a cyclone on December 21.
It headed south-west then swung south and finally south-east, approaching the Northern Territory across the Timor Sea.
After hitting Darwin it continued south-east through Arnhem Land.
A bureau spokesman in Melbourne said last night Tracy was slowly dissipating.
The disaster forces race to a tragedy
CAIRNS ON WAY TODAY
The acting Prime Minister, Dr. Cairns, was to leave Canberra for Darwin at 5 a.m. today.
He and his wife, Gwen, will fly to Darwin by RAAF Mystere jet.
His son, Mr. Philip Cairns, issued a statement on behalf of Dr. Cairns.
"It's a national disaster. The Government is pulling out every stop it can to provide relief," he said.
Mr. Philip Cairns is his father's private secretary. He said at least 49 people were dead.
Many were injured and hundreds of homes had been hit.
He said Dr. Cairns had wanted to fly to Darwin immediately, but he had decided to make way for emergency teams.
He said the Northern Territory and Northern Development Minister, Dr. Patterson, already had flown to Darwin from Queensland.
"We already have flown two surgical teams in on RAAF BAC jets, which have been shuttling up and down and about the country,"he said."
"It's chaos up there," Mr. Cairns said.
"Although communications have broken down, we know it's an absolute disaster.
"At first it was thought a few homes and facilities were knocked out, but it's far worse than that."
Mr. Cairns said architects and master builders associations were preparing to fly in emergency teams and equipment to provide shelter.
The Australian Red Cross yesterday began moving tons of blankets, food and clothes to RAAF bases, to be flown to Darwin.
A Melbourne spokesman said four tons of baby food had been flown north and should have reached Darwin by last night.
Trucks of blankets and clothes also were on the way from all capital cities.
The Defence Department recalled the crew of survey ship HMAS Moresby, berthed at Fremantle, to prepare to sail for Darwin by 8 o'clock last night.
The Natural Disasters Organisation director, Gen. Alan Stretton, was woken by the Darwin police about 4.30 a.m.
They called from the police station basement minutes before all communication with the city ceased.
It was the only part of the building still intact.
"They said the scene was one of utter destruction and asked me to move quickly to get help in," Gen. Stretton said, before flying to the area at 3 p.m.
He said the devastation could be Australia's worst yet.
The city was almost wrecked.
Up to 30,000 of the city's 40,000 people might have to be clothed, fed and housed.
Gen. Stretton said buildings rocked in the cyclone. Sheets of roof metal had flown through the streets while people walked around dazed.
The Northern Territory Administrator, Mr. Jock Nelson, yesterday left Alice Springs for Darwin. He and his family were on holidays.
The Federal Opposition leader, Mr. Snedden, said Australians everywhere would be appalled at the tragedy.
"Words are little consolation at times like these," he said.
Mr. Snedden said he was glad Federal aid was on the way.
THE DAY DARWIN DIED
'Hiroshima again'
Darwin from the air looks like Hiroshima, 1945.
One of the first survivors out yesterday told me it was worse than an atomic attack.
As we flew in and circled the airport we could not see one home in the eastern suburbs of Rapid Creek and Northcliff that was not damaged.
Two storey brick houses had been crushed. Older weatherboards had been driven through their stumps.
The airport itself tells the story of the town.
The trees have been stripped of their foliage. Many have been snapped at the middle.
The tarmac is scattered with the remains of oil tankers.
The RAAF mess is demolished and the administration centre which survived the Japanese World War 2 air raids, has been flattened.
Fifteen light planes are scattered wrecks, crushed beneath caved-in hangars.
The director-general of the National Emergency Centre, Major-General A. B. Stretton, told me: "When I arrived here yesterday, there was chaos. People were stunned.
"There was no organisation except at the police station, where bodies were strewn everywhere in the basement," he said.
"We have set up three morgues."
Major Stretton said there were at least 20,000 homeless.
About 3500 slept last night in the damaged Darwin High School.
At the RAAF emergency centre I saw a man break down. He has just learned his wife and son were dead.
Base commander, Group Captain D. W. Hitchins patted him on the shoulder and said to someone: "Get him on a plane out for God's sake."
Group Captain Hitchins told me, "There is not one building that hasn't suffered major damage.
"I'm meeting General Stretton and the Northern Territory administration later today.
"My advice is to get as many people as possible out of Darwin.
"There is no water, power or sewerage. The health problem could be major.
"It reminds me of a place I saw in 1945 - Hiroshima."
The area around Darwin is also devastated.
Huge flood lakes cover the plains and farmhouses appear from the air like crushed toys.
The search for missing people and cleaning operations were hindered yesterday by light drizzling rain.
The initial shock of the tragedy is wearing off. But nobody yet seems to have the will to go back and start cleaning up their wrecked homes.
Copyright Melbourne Sun 1974