Category 5 Cyclone Yasi due to hit Cairns and Townsville

Trojan

Trojan

Trojan

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I'm unsure if there's been much coverage of this over in the UK, but a 'life threatening' cyclone is due to hit Cairns and Townsville in around 10 hours.

Australian officials have warned that Cyclone Yasi, which is approaching Queensland, is likely to be the most deadly storm in living memory.

State Premier Anna Bligh said the storm would be "catastrophic" and that the state was facing "a frightening time".

Yasi has been upgraded to a category five storm - the most severe level.

The army is evacuating hospitals in the northern city of Cairns while residents in coastal areas are being urged to move to safer locations.

Last month the state was severely hit by widespread deadly flooding.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) warned that Cyclone Yasi posed and "extremely serious threat to life and property within the warning area, especially between Cairns and Townsville.

"This impact is likely to be be more life threatening that any experienced during recent generations," it warned.
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Taken from the BBC

This comes hot on the heels of the devastating floods that affected large swathes of Queensland a couple of weeks ago, and is the last thing the state needs right now.

On a personal level, I'm due to fly up to Cairns for a long weekend next month with my fiancée and my visiting parents. We've planned the usual Cairns agenda; Great Barrier Reef diving, trip up to the rainforest etc and as it stands right now I can't see the town having recovered enough for us to make the trip :(

Local sources on the unfolding event:

ABC

News.com.au

Projected course of the cyclone:

067372cycloneyasimap10p.jpg


Live cams in Townsville and Cairns:

Townsville Cam 1 - Offline as of 12:00pm

Townsville Cam 2 - Offline as of 12:00pm

Townsville Cam 3 - Still online as of 12:00pm

Cairns Cam 1 - Still online as of 12:00pm

Some satellite pictures showing the size of the storm, courtesy of simulatorman:

yasimodis12111.jpg


mtsat2211.jpg


yasicl20110202100000.jpg


Infrared imaging as of 10am UK time:

Infrared Image

Twitter page of a local Meteorologist:

Cyclone Updates
 
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[FnG]magnolia;18370936 said:
Is this the one which went through the tip of the North Island here in NZ and was a category 1 or 2 at the time? Category 5 now? :eek:
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I'm not sure, I can't see anywhere stating where the cyclone actually formed. But yeah, cat 5 is terrible :(

[FnG]magnolia;18370936 said:
Not having a good time of things over in Ozzie are you? :(
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Not in Queensland they're not. Down here in South Australia we've had no issues luckily.
 
There were 2. Cyclone Anthony was a Cat1 headed South East towards NZ and did a U turn and hit QLD. Yasi has come in behind Anthony from the North East and this morning became a Cat5. Is expected to be a Cat 1 when it hots Mt Isa which is a few 100km inland. 2 Cyclones in a week is pretty bad!

Yasi is currently 600km across and has already wiped out the weather station on Willis Island.

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR211.loop.shtml#skip

Poor QLD are not having much luck atm
 
Jesus what bad luck - hopefully 10hours is enough time to evacute - at end of day homes can be rebuilt, people cant. Fingers crossed...


ps3ud0 :cool:
 
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Good luck to all of you lot down there. I have a friend in Brisbane that I havnt heard from since the floods first started.

Sounds like they are really having a tough time.
 
Holy Mega Cyclone Batman!

EVACUATIONS in far north Queensland have now ceased, with residents being warned to prepare for isolation in their homes as conditions worsen as Cyclone Yasi bears down.

Premier Anna Bligh told reporters in Brisbane people should stay in their homes and bunker down for the biggest cyclone since World War I and prepare to "become a first-responder''.

"No one should be leaving home now. The time for movement and evacuation has now passed,'' she said.

"We expect to see very dramatic acceleration of wind and wind gusts over the next 24 hours. It is now time for all movement and evacuations to cease.''

Yasi threatens to batter the coast with 300km/h winds and a storm surge up to 7m late tonight.

Cairns and Townsville airports closed this morning, roads are closing and electricity has been cut to the town of Ayr.

Meteorologists have narrowed the path of Cyclone Yasi to between Innisfail and Cardwell, within a 30km degree of accuracy, and will hit about 10pm.

More than 10,600 people are in evacuation centres, including school halls and shopping centres, to ride out the storm.

A cyclone warning is in place from Cape Flattery to Sarina, where gusts are rising.

More electricity has gone down - 3000 properties in Airlie Beach - and the streets in the northern towns are deserted.

People are now being urged to remain in their homes, buttress the smallest room in the house with mattresses and doonas, and stay there.

They should take enclosed shoes, food and drinking water to last until the cyclone completely passes.

"This is, I know, an incredibly frightening time,'' the Premier said.

Disaster co-ordinator Ian Stewart warned people the emergency services may not be able to respond to calls at the height of the cyclone, as it would be life-threatening to them.

"People are going to be virtually isolated for some time,'' he said. "Understand that for some point it becomes too dangerous.''

It is the strongest and biggest cyclone experienced in Australia since 1918, and its accompanying storm surges of up to 7m above high tide anticipated at Cardwell have forced the evacuation of 35,000 people from Townsville to Cairns.

Ms Bligh said the situation was an "extremely serious threat to life and property".

"This is an event that we have no recent experience of," she said.

Winds are already being felt from the cyclone and the weather bureau's Willis Island observatory has failed due to winds at 295km/h.

Preparations are being made for a Navy ship to wait offshore to immediately assist in the recovery.

While the destructive winds will hit at the coast, a category 3 cyclone will also cross through Georgetown, more than 400km inland.

Ms Bligh said the last time a cyclone of this magnitude crossed the coast was in 1918.

"This impact is likely to be more life threatening than any experienced during recent generations," Ms Bligh said.

She urged inland residents in areas west of Cairns and Townsville to be prepared as Yasi moves into the interior of the state.

She said the Atherton Tablelands, Hinterlands and areas to the west needed to brace for cyclonic conditions.

"The cyclone is looking like it will be around Georgetown as a category three at 9am tomorrow morning," she said.

"It will slow down a little but will be a serious cyclone ... as it moves towards towns like Georgetown (southwest of Cairns) where you wouldn't normally see a cyclone."

She said large trees were already being brought down as the region started to see the effects of Yasi.

And dangerous swells would be experienced all the way down the coast to the Sunshine Coast, she said.

Wind gusts at the core of the cyclone are already at 295km/h, Ms Bligh said.

Mr Stewart said the storm surge at Cardwell was likely to be 6.5 to 7m.

"That means a person who lives in that area who knows what ... the highest tide level is, they can expect water above that, through the storm surge of up to 20 feet," he said.

Mr Stewart said the water would build up over coming hours as the tide rises. In Townsville the height is around the three metre mark, he said.

Ms Bligh said Palm Island would not be evacuated but people in low-lying areas had been moved to homes on higher ground.

"It will be one of the islands that experiences some very early symptoms of the cyclone, because it is just that bit off shore," she said.

"I'm very confident the council has done a good job in alerting people."

Ms Bligh defended the cyclone ratings of the state's shelters, saying those built after Cyclone Larry were to category five standards.

Innisfail State High School, which was now accommodating 500 people, was to category five standards, as well as Redlynch High School and the Babinda RSL Hall in Cairns.

"You can't accommodate 75,000 people in these sorts of shelters, that could never happen, you always need to expect that some people will be sheltering in their own homes," she said.
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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-...r-yasi-onslaught/story-fn7rj0ye-1225998758060



Its bloody HUGE!:eek:
Im just glad i dont live up there!
 
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