Naturally, with Hurricane Ivan threatening to do a Cyclone Tracy on New Orleans (a city the size of Adelaide or Perth), a lot of people here in Oz have had the South East US on their minds. I've heard people discussing it in the supermarket queues, while waiting for service at the post office, and had quite a few remarks made to me while I was wearing an "I Heart FL" badge. The Firestorm that singed and parbroiled Canberra about 18 months ago is still on our minds. We know what it's like to sit and listen to emergency broadcasts as a threat draws ever closer. Been There, Done That.
So I wrote a letter to the Tallahassee Democrat (a paper I'd found while doing some researching for another article), and wonder of wonders, they published it. Perhaps it was the novelty value, I don't expect they get too many letters from Australia. Certainly it was no epic of Shaespearean proportions, just a reflection of the wellwishing here.
As the link is evanescent, I'll quote the letter:
A few months ago, I had the privilege of attending a concert at the Sydney Opera House by the Tallahassee Winds orchestra.The simple truth.
I just want to let everyone in the Florida Panhandle know that there are people as far away as Australia who were wishing you guys the best with Ivan the Terrible.
You've got friends here, friends you've never met.
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Anonymous commenters - please add a signature (doesn't have to be your real name) on each post of yours. Anne O'Namus, Norm D. Ploom, Angry from Kent, Demosthenes, or even your real initials, it doesn't matter.
Commenters are expected to be polite to each other, but the same standard doesn't apply to comments regarding me.
Australian commenters are very very strongly advised to publish anonymously. Sydney alone has more defamation actions than the entire USA and UK. Nearly double that of the UK in fact.
As Google does not reliably inform me that a comment has been posted, and I have no control over first publication, I assert that all comments are innocently disseminated under the NSW DEFAMATION ACT 2005 - SECT 32 and similar acts.