Cyclone Yasi heads towards my home town

Cyclone Yasi is headed towards my home town.:cry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Yasi
NB: This link is evolving, hour by hour. Not much info, there, at the time of this post.

Last night it was thought to cross the coast well south of us, but overnight it moved more northerly and still headed west at around 30 kilometres (20 miles) an hour. A very fast speed for cyclones. They usually move at around 10 kilometres (6 mph).

One of the biggest, and possibly most destructive, cyclones is headed towards North Queensland. It is due to strike within the next 36-48 hours as, probably, a Category 4 (out of 5) strength.

No one can predict its actual landfall as yet, as it is still a long way away.

Category 4 cyclones demolished Darwin in 1974 and Innisfail in 2006.
Darwin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Tracy
Innisfail: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Larry

The difference in Yasi is that it is bigger, and has an area of around 500 kilometres (300 miles) wide, ( and a 100 kilometre, 60 mile eye ) so even if it misses an area, the winds and rain could still cause destruction in areas/towns/cities well away from the eye of the cyclone.
Mainly south of the eye, so that is some minor good news to us in Cairns.

Both my sons have been evacuated from the Central Queensland Island resort
where they are working. They have a 10 hour bus trip ahead of them to get back to Cairns. Out of the frying pan into the fire, I reckon.

We should be safe, where I live, as we are in a downstairs, inside, apartment (flat) that is fairly well protected (I hope :-D )

All we can do is wait and hope it crosses land somewhere relatively unpopulated.

I'm off to stock up on food that needs no power, and some more re-chargeable batteries to charge before the power may be cut off for days.

Bye for now.

Bazza

 

LOL

Bazza

 

Wishing you and your entire town the best of luck.

 

Be safe Bazza and family. Hope that Yashi will turn away and head back from where it came from.

 

I'll say many prayers for you and your family's safety, Bazza

Shelagh

 

Hi, an update.

FYI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Yasi link has been updated, since yesterday.

Cyclone Yasi is now rated as a Category 5 (the highest, most destructive) rating. Winds of up to nearly 300 kilometres per hour (150 miles per hour) are predicted. A storm surge of around 2 metres (nearly 7 feet) at high tide are also predicted.

Our Base Hospital and Private Hospital have both been evacuated and around 150-200 patients flown out to our capital Brisbane ( Over 1,000 miles away).

Yasi has picked up speed and is due to hit around 10pm to midnight our time tonight (about 14 hours time) when high tide is also due.

Fortunately for Cairns, it looks like Yasi might cross the coast a little bit south of us, but it really will make little difference as the cyclone is over 500 kilometres (300 miles) wide.

A storm surge of around 2 metres high ( 7 feet ) is expected to flood the Cairns Central business district, so it will be out for a few days. Most businesses are shut and sandbagged to hopefully reduce flooding

The airport will be closing down in 1 hours time, and all flights in or out willl be cancelled.

Both my sons arrived from an Island resort (from where they worked) by bus, about 2 hours ago . They are both OK. All the Island resorts in North Queensland have been shut, evacuated, or have skeleton staff only.

That's about all for now. All we can do is wait and hope, particularly for those towns slightly south of us.

Bazza

 

Yeah, Yasi is shaping up as the biggest cyclone ever!
~ Stay safe, Baz!

 

Wow, 180 MPH winds.:eek Stay safe baz.

 

Stay safe Baz and were all hoping everyone pulls through alright and hope nothing comes your way

 

Take care Baz. I've been through a 4 and it's no fun at all. Hopefully the pressure won't be nearly as low as they predict and pass over you as quickly as possible. Please stay safe and good luck!

 

Predicted route.

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDQ65002.shtml

Keep yourself safe.
That IS an order.

 

Yep, F.Y.I:-

Cyclones (which are always low pressure weather systems) spin in a clockwise direction in the southern hemsiphere and anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere (as viewed from space).
Anticyclone refers to a system rotating on the reverse direction so: anti-clockwise direction in the southern hemsiphere and clockwise in the northern hemisphere.
This is due to the Coriolis Force, which is caused by the Earth's rotation.
We're both getting a storm hammering lately. In the west, about all we're getting is rainstorms and strong winds in the middle of summer, from yet other Tropical Cyclones. Such is life of late.

 

Looks like Yasi is going to make landfall at high tide - that ain't good.

We went through the same thing in '89 with Hugo - 23' storm surge.

Thoughts and prayers for all concerned - hang in there, guys.

 

Seems that Cairns was just on the ridge of Yasi and escaped the worst of the damage. Hoping that everyone is okay and no casualties. Word has it that Yasi can be compared to hurricane Katrina. Here's a clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX-3YERElcg

 

Thanks all. :cool
Our unit has been without power for 30+ hours. We now have power again. Normal temps are around 30 Celsious in daytime.

3 in a small flat gets a bit smelly after a while. :-D

We, and Cairns, have escaped major damage as the Cyclone hit South of us. Thank God. Stats of Yasi were around 300kph ( 180 mph), category 5, the highest (worst rating), moving at around 30 kilometres per hour (around 20 mph) and a Hectopascal rating of around 920. Cyclones rarely get below 950, or so.

Yasi was the worst ever recorded in OZ. :cry

It hit a not so populated area, slightly south of us. Towns were Cardwell ( a really beautiful little town right on the beach ), Tully, Innisfail (again-- see post #1 and Larry) and other towns. Only 1 death so far, but a couple are unaccounted for at the moment.

Cairns is again cut off from towns down South and as supplies usually come by truck, our stores are really running short of food.

Army troops, State Emergency Sevices and more Police are here, or on their way.

Yasi really put the wind up everyone (excuse the pun). It is now a Tropical low and threatening towns, inland, 1000 kilometres (625 miles) away. That is incedible, and never happened before.

Cairns had aound 11 inches of rain ( 270-280 mills) in the last day, and the electrical storms (thunder and lightning) were worse than the Cyclone., IMO. Lots of trees down across roads, highways houses and shops everywhere the Cyclone hit.

Around 180,000 houses, shops, businesses are stlll without power.:cry

Altogether, everthing considered, Cairns was really lucky.

Thanks again to all. :major

Bazza

 

Glad to see you're still with us.

 

We were without power for almost two weeks during Hugo, and you and Ben Franklin are correct: fish and visitors start smelling after three days. :fart

Glad y'all are okay - hopefully, Yasi's the last storm you'll see for a while.

 

Thanks Caliban.

Queensland have had 3 cyclones in the last 5 weeks. They are predicting 6 cyclones this season.

Hope they are wrong.

Bazza

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Glad your alright bigbazza

 

Glad to hear you survived bigbazza. Yasi has faded to just a storm, but it's reached inland as far as Alice Springs. Have you ever heard of that happening before?

 

Wow, that's an amazingly HORRIBLE storm. Glad that your power is back on so quickly!

Usually when those storms fly through like that they suck all of the bad weather out with them and you are left with destruction under hot, clear blue skies.

The only good thing about them is that you can see them coming and have some warning. Better than tornadoes and earthquakes.

Stay safe and sane! It's still difficult and dangerous after the storm has passed.

 

Probably more danger from people looting and stealing just to survive.
Be careful. This is a whole new world there now.
Although, where you are is safer than the harder hit areas.

 

Thanks Gregoryno6, we are all OK. :major
It has never happened before, AFAIK, that cyclones/lows have reached so far inland. This is the first recognised Category 5, as well., in recent times.

Bazza

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Certainly much better than tornadoes, earthquakes, bushfires and snowstorms.

My feelings go out to all the USA residents that are currently being hit by snowstorms. I'd sooner be hit by "warm" bad weather than freezing temperatures being experienced over there at the moment.

Hope all MG'ers in those snowstorm areas are OK.

Bazza

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The "looting" makes great headings for the media.
The number of looters is probably less than a dozen or so. No where as dangerous as looters in other countries. As mentioned in other posts, Cairns was extremely lucky to suffer little damage.

Bazza

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Yes Tim W. Did you know that Australia has a bigger skiing area than Switzerland?

As for pushing trucks, etc., chains are sometimes required in skiing areas. Many, many, years ago the school bus I was on slid off the road on the run to school, and we were forced to trudge through a paddock to the nearest home. It turned out that the paddock was the paddock used to muster cows for milking. Phew. :-D Plenty of manure covered in snow, everwhere. :-D LOL

Bazza

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Ok, that's not an impressive statistic, Switzerland is a postage stamp sized country and Australia is a whole continent! If it weren't for some countries the size of a town, like Lichtenstein, Switzerland would be the smallest in Europe.

Switzerland is half the size of Austria and most people think Austria IS Australia. A certain someone near and dear to my heart even has Australia in her passport as her country of birth because an American didn't realize there is a difference! Oh. I digress, my apologies.

I did have to think twice about it being summer there, i confess. It's sad, really.