Tracy: A Force of Nature | ABC Australia

Video Description

It was the darkest Christmas in Australia’s history. Sixty-six dead, 41,000 left homeless, and 70 per cent of the northern capital destroyed. Christmas Day 1974, and the once-tropical paradise of Darwin was reduced to rubble, razed to the ground as a severe tropical cyclone carved a path of destruction through the Top End, ripping homes from their foundations, tossing cars through the air, and snapping steel poles like matchsticks. Small but intense, Cyclone Tracy was like no other system before, or after it, in Australia. Its unexpected path to the city saw winds reach 217 kilometers an hour, before all weather instruments were destroyed by the ferocity. For those who lived through the terror that was Christmas Eve 50 years ago, their lives would never be the same. In this one-hour ABC special narrated by Leigh Sales, survivors tell of the tragedy and triumph in the days, months and years that followed. From the terrifying moment the storm hit, to the carnage it left in its wake, to the mass evacuation of its population, and eventually, the determination it took to rebuild a city that was wiped out by nature. A warning some viewers may find the content in this video distressing. 📽 Video produced by Matt Garrick, Andie Smith and Michael Franchi. Subscribe 🔔 http://ab.co/ABCAus-subscribe ___________________________________________ Web: http://abc.net.au/ Facebook:   / abc   Twitter:   / abcaustralia   Instagram:   / abcaustralia   ___________________________________________ Please note: On most of our videos, the captions/subtitles are auto-generated by YouTube. This is an official Australian Broadcasting Corporation YouTube channel. Contributions may be removed if they violate ABC's Online Conditions of Use http://www.abc.net.au/conditions.htm (Section 3).