Category 5 Cyclone Yasi due to hit Cairns and Townsville

[Trojan]

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.

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:

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:

Infrared imaging as of 10am UK time:

Infrared Image

Twitter page of a local Meteorologist:

Cyclone Updates

 

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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?

I'm not sure, I can't see anywhere stating where the cyclone actually formed. But yeah, cat 5 is terrible

Not having a good time of things over in Ozzie are you?

Not in Queensland they're not. Down here in South Australia we've had no issues luckily.

 

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Live cam overlooking Townsville here:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/caillins13

Will be 'interesting' to see how it looks in a few hours.

 

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http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18237129

 

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Dark sadly, but hopefully still looks like that tomorrow!

You can't see the mountain in the background anymore, though that looks just to be rain at the moment.

 

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This link is just looking at some trees and the roof of a house and the sky, but has audio.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/townsville-yasi

That actually gives a much better feel of the weather, I've linked it in the OP.

 

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It's just a bit of weather

/Chump

I was there last year arriving just after the last cyclone had hit, turned up in Townsville with very strong winds still, to say it was eerie walking around is an understatement. Wouldn't like to be there during a Cat 5.

What category was that? Any buildings ripped up, that kind of thing?

Camera 2 has gone.

Updated.

 

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Infrared imaging of the cyclone at present:

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

 

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Cyclone updates twitter feed:

http://twitter.com/#!/cycloneupdate

Also, taken from News.com.au:

8.41pm At least one roof has been torn off, trees have been torn down and lights are flickering in the Innisfail region. Cassowary Coast Mayor Bill Shannon says he's seen the roof a building torn off near the council chambers where 500 residents are sheltering. "The eye is five hours away and it's already causing damage so it's pretty worrying

Not looking good in the slightest

 

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simulatorman - thanks for the pics, very interesting and certainly brings home the sheer size of the storm. Mind if I add a couple to the OP?

ANother live feed:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/cyclone-yasi-cairns-cbd

Cheers for that, added to the OP.

 

[Trojan]

I don't understand the mentality of the people who had the chance to leave but decided to stay. Take the person in question here:

Police report a person at Innisfail has called them, asking to evacuate. Emergency workers cannot respond, other than give advice on sheltering, police say. "These are not conditions in which we can send out emergency workers," Premier Anna Bligh said this evening.

Now how on earth did they think it was a good idea to stay? Were I living in Cairns, as soon as I heard the news this morning I'd have been packing up sentimentals and valuables, and been on the road within the hour.

Add what you want.

Done, cheers dude.

 

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http://yfrog.com/h36x2ygj

Nice.

Haha. Also, Hogs Breath Cafe is fantastic

 

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Looks like it's going to hit smack bang between Cairns and Townsville:

 

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Which I guess is a bit better than hitting head on Townsville or Cairns. I seem to remember the spot between the two being reasonably sparsely populated.

It is, but it's still going to leave some completely devastated communities

they stopped evacuating people hours ago

''too late'' apparently

Far too late, some buildings have already had roofs ripped off as the wind is already at/beyond gale force.

Just been speaking to my mum, she has friends in Townsville and they have only just finished building their new home!

You'd just be crushed wouldn't you? But then again, a house can be rebuilt...

Hope op doesn't mind but a friend just sent me these and while i'm sure we wish everyone good luck it's easy to forget the animals affected.

Not at all fella, the more angles of coverage the better as far as I'm concerned

 

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The eye of the storm his hit land

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR192.loop.shtml#skip

Bingal Bay to be precise.

Bad times ahead.

Well, I've stopped up to 12:30am local time to see the cyclone hit properly but the weather channel guys are now saying it could be another hour or more. With work in the morning, that's it from me tonight guys, cheers for all the links, images and videos, will check back first thing to see how it's gone.

 

[Trojan]

From News.com.au

Yasi made landfall at about midnight local time (1am AEDT) at Mission Beach, but was felt from Cairns to Townsville.

The storm was downgraded from a category five to a category four as it crossed land but was still the strongest tropical storm to ever hit Australia. The storm has weakened as it travels over land, the last update at around 6am local time downgrading Yasi to a category two cyclone.

The full extent of the damage won't be known for many hours yet, but the communities of Mission Beach, Tully and Innisfail, 50km north of ground zero, are the worst hit. Queensland Police have received widespread reports of widespread damage and destruction but no reported injuries or deaths so far.

Electricity is out in many communities, with power lines brought down by winds. It will stay off at least until the storm has passed and it is safe for workers to go out and inspect the damage.

So it appears, against all odds, that the state has come away much better than expected. I don't think anybody was even daring to hope for no casualties.

Fantastic outcome considering then. On a personal level as well, it's great that Cairns didn't really get hit at all, at least not structurally. Should mean we can still head up there next month with no issues

 

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Good grief, that's a horrendous amount of insurance payouts to come!