Cyclone Larry March 2006 : post disaster residents survey / report prepared by David King and Douglas Goudie.

Cover title.

Summary -- Warnings and preparations -- Perceptions of warnings -- Timing of warnings: awareness and action -- Preparations for cyclone season and Cyclone Larry -- Vulnerable households -- Family and neighbours -- Shelter and actions -- Perceptions of the cyclone: personal and community -- Impacts and lessons -- Structures and damage.

"Following the impact of cyclone Larry on Johnstone Shire and surrounding communities on 20th March, a team of five researchers from the Centre for Disaster Studies carried out a post disaster household survey. The survey was carried out on a face to face interview basis, beginning on Saturday 25th and concluding on Tuesday March 28th. Eight separate areas/communities were covered - Innisfail Estate, East Innisfail, Flying Fish Point, Coconuts, Kurrimine Beach (one individual was interviewed in Innisfail), South Johnstone, Mourilyan and Babinda. The survey interviewed a representative from 147 participating households that held a total of 471 people at the time the cyclone impacted. The survey indicates a strong pattern of good preparation and protective behaviour, but significantly 82% of respondents had previously experienced a cyclone, principally Winifred that hit Innisfail 20 years ago. All the people; over 200 who spoke to us directly; also represent their families, and reflect the experiences of their neighbours and friends in the impact zone. Many knew they were going through a life-threatening experience. Some only realised this at 3 am, briefly before impact, but even they had prepared. A limitation of this data is that it was a household survey. [The researchers] did not interview many occupants of the possibly 1 in 20 households which had been rendered uninhabitable by cyclone Larry. This means the data is slightly biased on the side of less damage, of less impact than the total zone population." -- p. 4.