Speaking of Bad Weather - Severe TC Yasi to Hit Cairns

[Corvus]

Edited to fix title

While large parts of the US are to be hit or are being affected by a massive snow storm a 1,000 km (621 mile) stretch of the Queensland coast is going to be hit by a tropical cyclone (TC Yasi) at about 10pm today. Last night the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) upgraded it to a category 5. To compare it Katrina had a 50 kilometre eye while this one is about 100 km and Katrina was about 640 kms wide and Yasi is about 500 km. The storm is massive and about 400,000 people are in its expected path and it could be strong enough to reach Alice Springs as a tropical storm 1,400 kilometres from where it will hit and will probably still be a category 1 cycle when it reaches Mount Isa a largish mining city of 31,000 which is 775 kilometres inland.

They are expecting winds to reach close to 300 km/h (about 170 mph) and the eye will take about an hour to pass over.

The government has been evacuating people but naturally it isn't possible to get that many out so the majority are going to have to ride it out and hope for the best. They have been told that it could be some time before the SES and other emergency services can get it to help them after the cycle passes.

More here at the Courier Mail website or here (BoM) if you want to see the path it is expected to follow.

I don't know many up that way, but hopefully we won't see any loss of life, but I don't fancy our chances of that with a storm this powerful.

It all makes the 93% humidity and stifling heat (28C at 8:30am) we are subject to seem rather irrelevant, I think I will refrain from complaining about it for a while

[ytvr]

This morning the news said that no report of injuries or deaths so far. So, that is really goog. Yesterday some brothers and I were commenting how important is to obey the warnings. As in many cases, people are advised to evacuate but despite these warnings many people just decide to ignore them and later are the consequences. The same happens with the preaching where people are also advised to take action but many simply ignore it.

By the way, my thoughts are with our brothers in North Queensland who are experiencing this situation.

[50gumbys]

We're about 300km south of where the cyclone crossed over.

We've had lots of trees down but not much in the way of structural damage.

I couldn't help but think about those closest to the eye of the storm, how horrific it had to be.

Innisfail got hit yet again - only 2 years after it was devastated by Cyclone Larry.

Mission Beach got the full brunt - few homes left standing.

We spent last night in the 'bathroom' with the dogs.

We have trees down on the property, but the house has no damage.

I had to drive Ann to work this afternoon and couldn't believe the debris everywhere.

The bridge nearby is closed due to flooding - water is everywhere.

Trees are down everywhere.

I couldn't help but feel for everyone north of us.

It's now night and the rain has begun again here.

[50gumbys]

The winds have swung around now and are coming from the opposite side.

The rain is coming down very hard and they expect it to continue for a while.

Major flooding on the way and more trees will come down.

"Don't walk under that apple tree" !!!

Council will be cutting off water tonight as well.

I've got a full tub, so we'll be using that for a while.

[Corvus]

We're about 300km south of where the cyclone crossed over.

We've had lots of trees down but not much in the way of structural damage.

I'm glad to hear you are all okay up there, apart from the damage.

I'm quite amazed that a category 5 has done relatively little damage to buildings - from the footage I've seen Larry did more damage to homes and businesses than Yasi. What's even better is that the death toll so far is -3 with three babies born during the height of the cyclone. I'm hoping it stays that way and that no one has died. It will probably take at least a few days before people are able to take stock and report any missing though, so we may start hearing things early next week.

[50gumbys]

I saw on the news the size of this cyclone was larger across than the length of the British Isles.

Massive!

I've heard of one man missing.

And the fact that it hit in North Qld with a smaller population than in a concentrated area like Brisbane or Sydney, has made a difference.

Our congregation has asked us all if we can take in refugees.

In Townsville, the estimate for cleanup is 7 months.

Just glad the storm is over.

[cheesychat]

I saw on the news the size of this cyclone was larger across than the length of the British Isles.

Massive!

I've heard of one man missing.

And the fact that it hit in North Qld with a smaller population than in a concentrated area like Brisbane or Sydney, has made a difference.

Our congregation has asked us all if we can take in refugees.

In Townsville, the estimate for cleanup is 7 months.

Just glad the storm is over.

Glad you made it thru OK, Lori, I was watching things on our abc 24 news and wondering how all the brothers would fare.

Whereabouts are you? Do you know how many refugees we have?

[Corvus]

I saw on the news the size of this cyclone was larger across than the length of the British Isles.

Massive!

I saw it superimposed on the US and it would cover half of the continental United States east to west and from just north of the Canadian border to just south of the Mexican border. It was immense.

I've heard of one man missing.

Okay, that hasn't filtered down here yet, we heard of one man missing on his yacht yesterday but he was found safe - hopefully it is the same man and the rest of the news hasn't reached you yet.

And the fact that it hit in North Qld with a smaller population than in a concentrated area like Brisbane or Sydney' date=' has made a difference.[/quote']

Yes, that would be really bad, the area it affected has about 400,000 people spread out through small cities, towns and farming communities. If it hit Brisbane there are over 1.5 million people packed together and Sydney has about 4.5 million. Thankfully the chances of a cyclone hitting these highly population is very small in Brisbane and nearly impossible for Sydney (about 1% chance or something like that - this page has a map of cyclone tracks recorded in Australia).

Our congregation has asked us all if we can take in refugees.

In Townsville, the estimate for cleanup is 7 months.

Just glad the storm is over.

And just after the region had been affected by floods too

[Corvus]

I've heard of one man missing.

Okay, that hasn't filtered down here yet, we heard of one man missing on his yacht yesterday but he was found safe - hopefully it is the same man and the rest of the news hasn't reached you yet.

Just heard it on the radio and unfortunately it is a different man who disappeared shortly before the cyclone hit the coast and is still missing.

[Brother_Bliss]

I've been away this week offline with work, CO visit, bad weather, etc, and just managed to peek at this conversation you Australians are having among yourselves.

Glad to hear that you are all okay. This storm... was it a record breaker of sorts? It certainly looked enormous!

[50gumbys]

I heard one record was broken here.

Emerald - for the first time in recorded history - has had its first cyclone.

Emerald is about 200 miles inland from the east coast of Australia.

People are really talking here about getting hit - one thing after another.

Thank Jah we know what is going on

And - there are ones out there who want to know too!

[Corvus]

Yes, it appears we got off lightly human toll wise - only one death recorded so far and the cyclone didn't actually kill him, a 23 year old man suffocated after the power ran out and he foolishly ran a diesel powered generator in a small enclosed room. So far several people have been reported missing but all have been found after short searches. So far so good and I hope it stays that way. The biggest losses are of course businesses and houses destroyed as well as whole crops of bananas (price has already doubled to $6 a kilo in Brisbane and is set to rise to something like $16 in other parts of the country).

It was a real record breaker, the first category 5 cyclone to hit Queensland since 1918, but it seems to have done less damage than cyclone Larry a couple of years back - probably because people were much better prepared this time.

[cheesychat]

Our bananas doubled in price on the day of the cyclone!

One farmer had the common sense to go out and cut off the top half of his banana trees so that the whole tree wouldnt get uprooted. He will have another crop in 6 months time instead of waiting much longer like those whose trees were totally flattened.

[50gumbys]

I ran into a sister yesterday in town.

Unfortunately, she is still without power !

Her power is still off from the cyclone this past Wednesday.

Unbelievable.

Fortunately, the government is handing out subsidies to those who meet certain criteria.

One of these if no power for more than 48 hours.