For families in Darwin, the chance of sleep on Christmas Eve in 1974 vanished as they endured one of the worst natural disasters in the country. Fifty years on, one couple shares the 'miracle' that kept their infant son alive as the cyclone raged around them.
It was a day when many Australian families awoke to the squeals of delighted children as they discovered presents left under the Christmas tree.
Sixty-six people died, over 600 were injured — 145 seriously — and those who endured the cyclone were left traumatised. Pam and Peter's complacency was quickly replaced with alarm, as power and radio communication were lost and violent winds began blowing rain horizontally into their house. Peter and Pam rushed to get to the storeroom only to find that overhead powerlines had snapped and were arcing over their front staircase.
"It's like lying under the engine bay of a car, and someone is sitting in the driver's seat with their foot to the floor on the accelerator," he said."It was total eerie calm when dawn broke. There was no sound at all," Pam said. Despite Territorians' resilient spirit, 36,000 people left Darwin in the days and weeks after the cyclone, including more than 25,000 who were evacuated by air.
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