Showing Tracy by Gary McKay

On Christmas day 1974, Australia woke up to the news that Darwin had been devastated by cyclone Tracy. At midnight on Christmas Eve, Cyclone Tracy roared in from the Arafura Sea and in six hours wiped out Darwin. It was Australia's worst natural disaster - a night of fear and horror, a storm of unprecedented savagery and destruction. Winds of 300 kilometres per hour totally destroyed nearly all of Darwin's buildings and caused the deaths of more than fifty people. When Christmas Day finally dawned, many counted themselves lucky to still be alive. Thirty years later, some of those who lived through the cyclone recall their frightening experiences - from the sheer terror of the storm itself, to the heart-wrenching days that followed and the massive clean-up operation and evacuation of more than 20,000 people in six days. This is a compelling account of tragedy, survival and human courage.