AS CYCLONE Tracy lashed Darwin on Christmas Eve 1974, 18-year-old Wayne Carter could not believe how powerful and strong Mother Nature was.
His family lost everything.
"It was something you would not forget," the Wagga man said.
"For a young person who has never seen anything like that before, it was just unbelievable.
"The strength and power of Mother Nature was something to behold."
With the 40th anniversary of Cyclone Tracy falling on December 24, three Wagga men recalled the horror of the cyclone that killed 66 people.
Mr Carter's family were living in the northern Darwin suburb of Alawa when the cyclone struck.
His family thankfully survived and were evacuated to the nearest school where news was scant.
"We picked up a radio to hear what was going on but it was all in disarray," he said.
"It was organised chaos."
Another Wagga man, Noel Stair, was also in the thick of it.
Mr Stair was a meteorological officer at the Bureau of Meteorology's Darwin weather office.
On Christmas Eve, Mr Stair manned the radar as the storm rolled in from the Arafura Sea.
A day after Cyclone Tracy obliterated Darwin, he went back to work.
"It was fierce," he said.
"There was no doubt about the intensity of the cyclone. But you can only warn people there is nothing else you can do."
Mr Stair went on to become the officer in charge at the Wagga weather office from 1980 to 1987.
Mr Carter's family made a decision to return to Wagga after their house was destroyed.
"We left it all behind," Mr Carter said.
From one of several departure points scattered across the city, the Carter family boarded an American military plane and received $240 in emergency funds upon landing in Sydney.
They used that money to make their way back to Wagga, where they had previously lived.
Last year, Mr Carter returned to Darwin for the first time since 1974.
"A lot has happened since then but a lot of things have stayed the same. People in Darwin have always gravitated towards one another because of their isolation."
Wagga's Grant Luhrs was living in Darwin playing Australian Rules football in 1974.
When Cyclone Tracy struck Mr Luhrs was in his small apartment above a fish and chip shop.
Mr Luhrs, who described experiencing the cyclone as a "semi-religious experience", said it was life altering.
"For me, 40 years since Darwin every time I feel the wind blow, it stays with me," he said.
The intense feelings Darwin evoked prompted Mr Luhrs to write the most important song of his career - Every Time I Feel the Wind Blow.
"I was 22 and bullet proof and it was a near death experience for me," Mr Luhrs said.
