Rusty dust

The country came to the city this week, in a big way.

The town was full of relatives of the famous worry-wart, Chicken Little, spreading fear because according to them, "The sky is falling".

Simply - the slickers had never experienced a decent dust storm before.

The dust storm blowing top soil from the far west of NSW brought a massive demonstration of the power that farmers need to deal with every season. I have seen heavy dust storms in Adelaide, Broken Hill and Melbourne, events which only happen in extreme conditions. Sometimes the light through the airborn dirt is grey, sometimes white and sometimes red.

Farmers see regular local dust storms , and may swear a bit when it happens, but they don't cower under their donnas.

The amazing reaction of people who have ignored the drought for decades was revealing of how isolated and insulated from nature most city cousins can be.

I heard words like 'Armagedon', 'fear' and 'Apocalypse'. I know of one person who was too afraid of the weather to come to work. I saw one story written by a juvenile journalist, talking about Sahara sand storms. Other comments forecast that this was proof of global warming.

No worry, it will soon all blow over, and be forgotten.