Yasi

We have come into this Category 5 cyclone after weeks of watching the hideous floods in Queensland, the situation in Pakistan and Brazil and then other weather events around the world. We seem to be surprised it is not as bad as we thought. What were we expecting and have we been watching too much televsion and too many DVDs? Had this been a one off we might be seeing this as horrifying and highly destructive. We have a perspective and we have a disaster perspective ..and do you know what? We have had superb leadership of a superb disaster management team which, by now, has learnt a lot and has acted promptly and wisely to ensure human safety and a sensible approach. Keeping our heads straight through this has been the key and then rallying through social media has provided a strength to support the vulnerable. Australians have become adepts at using social media to reassure and inform each other. The disaster management team and the media have also played their role in linking in vital and critical information. So Anna Bligh has led a strong team which has deployed itself in an exceptionally effective manner. It is not less than we expected. It is what it was always going to be. We have just demonstrated we are awesome and we have taken that for granted. Facts, information, a plan and then government and national back up have kept Queenslanders strong. We can do nothing but we can be there. We can stand with them.So listen and hear - the people are saying this has been worse,  more terrifying, scarier than any other cyclone...we just have had top quality management to guide us through the storm and the captain of the ship needs full credit and her team needs high praise. We also need to understand that we have very quickly learned we can use social media to keep people strong and safe. The picture will be grim as it emerges because we have such widespread structural and agricultural damage but our team has saved lives and clearly we have learned a lot about how to keep properties and ourselves safe. Let's take a moment to acknowledge that.