Today I visited Mission Beach, the coastal community where Cyclone Yasi (read the earlier post about this) made landfall. On the drive in, the devastation became evident in the rainforest as entire canopies were stripped of foliage and branches. The SFS student body and I traveled south to this area to aid in a community clean-up, and I personally worked at a tree nursery sponsored by a conservation group. After finishing with the massive debris pile deposited by the storm surge (nearly 40 yards from the high tide line), I was able to take my first walk along the Pacific Ocean. What a beautiful sight. Directly off the coast sit small, mountainous islands that dot the horizon. I unfortunately was not able to swim due to the fact its Box Jellyfish season (“stingers” as the Aussies call them) and this region was not netted off. I wanted to swim despite the stingers but the staff would not allow that (which I grudgingly admit is understandable). So instead I went for a walk along the shoreline and discovered lots of coral, undoubtedly deposited on the beach from Yasi’s storm surge, including an enormous block weighing at least ten pounds. Too bad I couldn’t take that home as a souvenir. Torrential downpours cut my Pacific walk short, and we packed up and headed back to the Centre. The destruction evident at Mission Beach puts the power of tropical storms into perspective, and I hope that the rest of my stay Down Under is cyclone-free.
