Cyclone YASI threatens Far North Queensland (Australia)

[BGTV8]

Category Five (Katrina was a Cat 5 storm) Tropical Cyclone YASI will hit the coast of Queensland around midnight night local time, bringing 285-320kph winds and an expected 1-metre of rain (39 inches) in less than 24 hours.

Landfall expected at Cairns.

A storm-surge/tide of 7metres above normal is also predicted.

35,000 people have been evacuated in the past 24 hours.

Spare a thought for these folks in the next 24 hours ...... it may well get ugly ..

RB

[SoCal 370Z]

Truly incredible forces of nature wreaking havoc on you guys. Hopefully, you'll weather this safely. Please keep us updated when possible. Thoughts spared to all.

[ThoriumHotdog]

Wow. Thanks for putting that in perspective. That is one mean storm. Is it going to land anywhere near the current flood victims?

[BGTV8]

YASI hit approximately 110km south of Cairns at Mission Beach which is around 1200km north of the areas in central and southern Queensland which were devastated by floods recently.

My niece, her husband and 2 small children were bunkered down in their house in Cairns in a relatively modern-construction house and their house remain undamaged although some water has seeped in thru windows. One older house in their street has lost its roof (which finished up in the local park, so it has not caused further damage as the winds moved it around). My 3-yo grand nephew thought it was cool - being allowed to be up in the middle of the night and having a "sleep in the corridoor" party (the corridoor that runs thru the centre of the house is the strongest/safest part of the structure to be in). The 6 month old infant slept right the way thru it (innocence of the young!!). Their parents are tired but it seems that the new building reguations since Cyclone Larry 5 years ago have meant that dwellings constructed since then have weathered the worst that nature can throw at them. Older structures have not fared so well.

There are reports of widespread damage in Mission Beach, Innisfail and nearby areas as this is where the eye of the storm crosseed the coast. There are some fantastic sequences on YouTube posted by a pair of New Zealand "storm-chasers" - I'll post a link later in the day if anyone is interested.

The emergency services and Australian Defecen Force personnel are now moving into these worst afected areas to kick-start cleanup efforts. As always in winds like this, basic infrastructure takes a belting, so initial engineering efforts will focus on electricity, water and other basic supplies.

Most importantly, no reports of injury or death, as a lot of official effort went into evacuations in the previous 24hours, together with constant information about where are the safest places to bunker-down if you don;t have to evacuate.

Yasi is now 200 km inland, travelling west by south west and has been downgraded to a Cat 3 storm, and is expected to travel a furthre 1500-1800km inland to the west before blowing itself out as a rain depression. The tendrils of the storm will dump rain in Melbourne (where I am), some 3000kms to the south, on Saturday - so this storm (as it dies) will cover a massive, massive area ...

I saw on the news this morning that mid-West and up into North and North East USA is now the subject of a monster snow-dump as well .... looks like the year for extreme weather events .....

[Gee]

Welcome to the age of climate change, more extreme weather conditions more often. Damn all those village-idiots who say climate change a.k.a. 'global warming' is a conspiracy or not real. Wake up and smell the roses numbnuts.

[Jordo!]

Originally Posted by Gee

Welcome to the age of climate change, more extreme weather conditions more often. Damn all those village-idiots who say climate change a.k.a. 'global warming' is a conspiracy or not real. Wake up and smell the roses numbnuts.

Agreed.

Anyway, hope it's moving in and out quickly with minimal damage...