[Aliantha]

The worst of the storm cut a path through the Gold Coast hinterland which isn't indicated on the damage map, and continued north through the western suburbs. The reason there's those two particular areas noted is because they're really the highest density population. I don't know if they were microburst or not. What I do know is that the damage has been compared to that of a bad cyclone which is our equivalent of your hurricanes.

We've now also had a housefire after a resident who was cooking dinner when the power failed and last night when it came back on at about 6:30 and no one was there, the kitchen caught on fire.

It's quite terrible what the people are going through in the area. We're giving to the relief fund, but I wish there was more I could do. I thought of loading my car up with pizza's and just delivering them to the road crews or something, but that seemed a bit ostentatious, not to mention that I might get in the way anyway.

Anyway, there's only 1000 homes without power now, so that's a pretty good effort. The PM has already toured the area and the Premier (our equivalent of a governor) and the Mayor of course.

My heart goes out to the people affected by this tragedy. So many people have lost their homes. Luckily, it's unusual for people in Australia not to insure their homes, so most will at least have something to begin again with.

ETA: Oh and we had another 3 inches or more of rain last night on some of the affected areas. Not good.