Cyclone Jacob " another threat to Wa coast.

Bit late hey

Peter

With at least one death and quite a few hospitalized, I believe that questions are being asked. Apparently BHP have now decided to evacuate anyone who wants to go. Bit late for that.
When I was in that area in June, people seemed a bit blase about cyclones (shades of Tracey !) "She'll be right mate, we just get out of the way of em"
Yeah, right.

The BHP camps are permanent and have seen many cyclones over the years . Given that their buildings are of a satisfactory standard , and BHP has proven cyclone procedures in place , there is no requirement to evacuate . The FMG camp appears to have had serious deficiences in at least the tie downs and this indicates that their procedures were also deficient , or non existant . The Indee Station fatality is harder to understand as the station owners are very experienced with cyclones . I don't know if the donga that failed there was a station donga or a mining donga . It is thought that the fatality may have been partly caused by a medical condition brought on by the damage to the donga .

It is correct to say that many people were becoming blase about cyclones and George was a wake up call .