Cyclone Yasi to hit far north Queensland

Yasi is predicted to hit just north of Cairns late Wednesday, or early Thursday, as a category four. Best of luck to my Queensland friends.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/01/3127249.htm?section=justin

That’s exactly where I was before I came to Taiwan. Good luck to the folks down on the coast and the farmers on the Tablelands.

I’m in Brisbane, the wind’s picking up and we’ve had sporadic rain all day. The waves down the Gold Coast were huge yesterday.

Most of Cairns has been sent official SMS warnings to evacuate; the government’s saying you need to be at least as far south as Mackay before you’re considered 100% in the clear. Hospital patients are being flown down to Brisbane and airports were expected to be closed this evening… dunno if they are. Radio had an interview with a local earlier on today, and he was saying that the old blokes in the tavern were all saying they’d never seen anything like it.

Fingers crossed all will be well, and I hope everyone up north takes care and stays safe.

I pray for the protection of the cultural heritage of north Queensland’s pioneers: The Lion’s Den Hotel, the pubs of cooktown, the Malanda Pub, Peeramon Pub, Yungaburra Pub and Royal Hotel Herberton, the top pub in Ravenshoe and in particular, the Espanol Hotel at Lappa Junction.

May their weatherboards weather the storm and their patrons drink on after stumps and forever, amen.

God Bless FN Qld.

I was living near Townsville a few years ago when cyclone Larry, a smaller system, hit Innisfail. Quite a few damaged roofs and a death if I recall correctly, but most homes escaped relatively unscathed. A large swathe of rainforest was completely stripped of leaves; I remember afterwards it was quite surreal to walk across the forest floor - usually such a dark place - in beaming sunshine and silence too, because all the birds had gone.

But yikes! This is much bigger than Larry and it’s gonna hit a much more populated area.


http://www.goes.noaa.gov/sohemi/sohemiloops/shirgmscol.html

They reckon it’s 500KM across.

Queensland’s produce and agriculture has already been hit by the floods, now we’re going to lose more of the FN’s fruit crops too @.@;

Cairns and Port Douglas were almost completely wiped out by cyclones a long time ago, and have been hit many times since, so most of the infrastructure will withstand this one. They really need to relocate the hospital and airport up to the top of the hill. :2cents:

My family’s up in the Whitsundays where they just had a cyclone at the weekend and now this big bugger is coming thru. Got a text from mum this morning saying her street was being told to leave as they are right on the beach and there are fears of storm surges, even though they’re only going to get the fringes of Yasi. Pretty scary stuff and each time the cyclones come I wonder how many more our old house can survive. Lots of great updates on fb and twitter to keep us expat queenslanders in the loop. Does make me think that they breed them tough up north!

TC Yasi has been upgraded to a category 5 cyclone and has moved slightly south, more likely to hit between Innisfail and Cardwell about 8pm tonight, Taiwan time… really scary stuff…

bom.gov.au/products/IDQ65002.shtml

Looking at the size of that I don’t think it matters much where the eye is, as everywhere’s gonna get slammed!!

You’re right about the northerners being made different. I went on a road trip up north a few years back and kept thinking ‘Huh… THIS is where the Australia I was promised is!’

hopefully doing another one in July next year :smiley:

Well, Cairns residents are being ordered off the street by the army and loudspeakers, and the storm surge is predicted as 7m above high tide maximum. I have a few friends in Cairns, hopefully they’ll all stay safe. Though I think you’re right Charlie, everyone will pull through.

My youngest sister and nephews are near Ravenshoe and I have a lot of beloved friends all through that region. My friends on the Tablelands are calling their family and friends on the coast to come up and sit it out up there. Good idea, I reckon.

Thank God for cyclone bolts.

gotta love the resolve of Queenslanders!

facebook.com/photo.php?fbid= … 9665603253

AFAIK, there’s not many storms that have ever delivered such winds from PMG down to the Gold coast. That’s 2,500 km wide for feck’s sake!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daJRmJnKGQc

Some of my friends are among the approximately 70 000 evacuees in Townsville. They’re not worried about the wind so much as the storm surge and flooding. Gonna be a looooooooong night in North Queensland. Looks like Cairns may escape the worst of the rain and wind but poor Innisfail! A direct hit again.

:pray:

a few interesting graphics to put the cyclone into perspective:

if cyclone yasi were attacking Asia:

attacking the US:

attacking Europe:

source:
news.com.au/breaking-news/fl … 5998762870

It crossed at Mission Beach. Last I heard, sis and family were going to shelter under their water tank. Mum, Dad, 3 kids,and a menagerie of pets. Now everything’s incommunicado for god knows how long.

great local radio coverage at abc.net.au/tropic/ it’s refreshing to hear people’s accounts, brings a smile to my face!

Thanks, that’s great.

I was watching Australia Network which was mostly repetitive crap. Good they had Bob Katter on though.

yeah bob really ripped into them, about creating alarm about the severity…