BEVERLY — Snow isn't the worst thing in the world. While we've been longing for warmth, the subtropical Australian summer has produced two massive natural disasters in the space of weeks, and another looks likely.
Yesterday, Chris Gilbert, 57, of Beverly, a native Australian, was closely following the arrival of the giant Cyclone Yasi and its 190 mph winds. He and his American-born wife, Jo Kadlecek, a public relations specialist at Gordon College, were in Australia last month when the state of Queensland bent beneath monsoon rains and the most damaging floods in living memory.
A deluge carried away property and people (35 dead by one recent estimate) and left behind a colony of the country's deadly snakes, slithering for high ground, appearing in places they'd never been before, on city streets and homes.
"Snakes were a real issue," Gilbert said.
A filmmaker now, Gilbert spent time in journalism, working for Queensland's Sunshine Coast Daily. He was on assignment for them in 1997, covering the death of Princess Diana in the United Kingdom when he met his wife.
As recently as Jan. 2, the couple vacationed in Australia.
"We got hit with rain, but we weren't flooded," Gilbert said of his location at the time. It was clear, however, that the floods were an extraordinary event, the rain inundating massive areas of Queensland, giving a soaking to New South Wales and even seeping into far south Victoria.
People in Brisbane were seen wading through water, sometimes at neck level, Gilbert said. "One young man, trying to check out his dad's house, got sucked down a storm drain."
In another town, a man came onto his veranda to see "a massive saltwater crocodile" on the lawn, Gilbert said. In Goodna, miles from the ocean, deadly bull sharks cruised past a flooded McDonald's restaurant.
Lake Eyre, situated at the country's lowest point in the midst of the barren outback, is expected to fill for the first time since 1974. Crops across the country's most fertile areas have been wiped out.
"It's been this massive weather pattern," Gilbert said.
Australia's population of 22 million has thus far suffered more than $40 billion in damage. By comparison, Hurricane Katrina cost the U.S. $80 billion.
As if all this isn't bad enough, experts see a return of the flooding.
"February looks like a repeat," Gilbert said. Some Australians, he expects, will find their homesteads evacuated a second and perhaps a third time.
The enormity of the assault has left Gilbert a little dazed.
"In my lifetime, it's never been like this," he said. "Never on this scale."
Meanwhile, Category 5 Cyclone Yasi hit Queensland yesterday, the largest tropical storm ever documented in Australia.
"I'm sure we're going to see massive devastation," a shaken Gilbert said.
He finds a little relief in the fact that Yasi touched down at Mission Beach.
"My family," his parents, siblings, nieces and nephews, "is quite removed from the danger." They mainly live near Brisbane, far south.
Even so, he admits it's difficult to be far away at a time like this.
"Part of me wishes I was able to be there and help out," he said. "After being here for 14 years, this is my home, Beverly. I'm involved in the community." He holds dual citizenship.
Yet, pausing, he confesses his unease regarding Cyclone Yasi.
"Being an Aussie, it concerns me more than the snow we've been having. ... It's difficult. You are torn in your affections. ... I've been watching what's happening in Australia. There are moments of tearing up as I read this stuff."
Gilbert displays optimism about his native land's resilience. He saw some of that while he was there. "The thing I enjoyed was seeing how organized the State Emergency Service was." Ordinary people stepped forward to pitch in.
Faced with another challenge, Aussies prepared for the cyclone with swift and total evacuations from low-lying areas.
"There is a generosity here," he said. "A largeness of heart. I find it a wonderful trait."
And Gilbert expressed faith that, notwithstanding economic difficulties, his homeland will continue to get help from his adopted country. He cited an effort by TV host Oprah Winfrey, raising $20 million for flood victims in a few days.
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