In 1974, the most destructive tropical cyclone recorded in Australia's history devastated Darwin on Christmas Eve, turning the city into a war zone. This book is a collection of survivor stories. When I first began putting this book together, I had no idea how gut-wrenchingly sad it would be. While working on the formatting of this book, and reading a few passages here and there, I found myself crying as the words on the page opened old wounds and memories I'd thought long healed and long forgotten. How wrong I was. It was then that I began to realise just how traumatic it must have been, too, for those retelling their stories from that terrible night so long ago. Some penned stories of innocent lives lost, others of how beloved family pets had been torn from their arms, then shot to prevent the spread of disease. All remembered the demonic sound of the wind as invisible hands snatched loved ones away, while the walls, ceilings and eventually the floorboards vanished from beneath their feet. Many tell of the dystopian, war-like devastation that greeted them as they crawled out from beneath the rubble as the sun rose on that fateful Christmas morning, grateful still to be alive. How it was that so many survived that brutal, unforgiving night will forever remain a mystery to me, and to the thousands of other souls who survived the night from hell with Tracy. Patti Roberts. Author/Publisher. Contributing stories from: Patti Roberts Andy Stump Beth Cats Jan Berry Ian Philip Cork Darly & Annette Lehmann Sue Gullefer Jan Harris Deb Hendry Ian Heron Kathryn Holden Diane Hunter Jilly Limb Costa Karaolias Gaby Lancaster A Letter from Joy Lesley Davis Marg Roderick Mark Saban Bill McGuinness Sue McGuinness Chris Hopkins Jan Oakhill Kev Ruwoldt Chrissy Schubert Vicki Shean Joyce Sprunt Leesa Plester Wayne Stubbs Samantha Trott Tracey Collins Tim West Eleanor Graves Ramon Williams. Photographer Betty Watcham. Red Cross