Category 5 Cyclone Yasi due to hit Cairns and Townsville

PiKe · 2 Feb 2011 at 16:56

Apparently the eye is collapsing as it hits land, which I think is a good thing.

Biohazard · 2 Feb 2011 at 16:58

PiKe said:
Apparently the eye is collapsing as it hits land, which I think is a good thing.

I would presume so if that's the case.

Hopefully that's the worst of it!!

I missed all the funny Australians on webcam too

Cosimo · 2 Feb 2011 at 17:24

Latest MTSAT IR Colorized:

ChroniC · 2 Feb 2011 at 17:24

Not to dilute its power, but its being downgraded to a 4, which is still very bad but it from most articles, it doesn't seem to be tearing the place to bits, like once though.

Jambo · 2 Feb 2011 at 17:27

Flibster said:
I'm liking this guy as well.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/caill...tter.com&utm_source=6794311&utm_medium=social

Just said "Probably not the smartest thing I've ever done, being outside, 7 stories up in the middle of a cyclone."

I was watching his through the night and his girlfriend Kylie made an appearance on cam. Folk were telling her to get her baps out.

Unfortunately I had briefly 'flicked my tab' and missed her.

Berserker · 2 Feb 2011 at 17:48

PiKe said:
Apparently the eye is collapsing as it hits land, which I think is a good thing.

That was to be expected. Cyclones typically strengthen over water and weaken over land. Category 4 is still plenty deadly enough though. It'll continue to weaken as it works inland.

Greebo · 2 Feb 2011 at 18:49

ChroniC said:
Not to dilute its power, but its being downgraded to a 4, which is still very bad but it from most articles, it doesn't seem to be tearing the place to bits, like once though.

Thing is it was 200kms from Cairns which is a good thing. I;ve not seen any film from the small towns it passed directly over but on twitter there are reports of hotels completely destroyed so I would imagine these small hamlets will be pretty much wiped out.

thedoc46 · 2 Feb 2011 at 19:01

This is what a CAT4 can do. Wait until half way through the clip to really see how it goes !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeM-cjTEEA8

Berserker · 2 Feb 2011 at 19:08

Now Cat 3 and expected to fall to Cat 1 as it hits the mountains. This is a good thing.

Sounds like Cairns has escaped relatively unscathed. This is also a good thing.

OzyOly · 2 Feb 2011 at 19:09

Downgraded to Cat 3 now.

Edit - Beaten.

Cosimo · 2 Feb 2011 at 19:10

Berserker said:
Now Cat 3 and expected to fall to Cat 1 as it hits the mountains. This is a good thing.

Sounds like Cairns has escaped relatively unscathed. This is also a good thing.

That is great news.

Sankari · 2 Feb 2011 at 19:21

Greebo said:
ABC radio reported it, everybody on Tweeter stated it was wrong

No, ABC said they had received unconfirmed reports which they were trying to confirm.

Greebo · 2 Feb 2011 at 19:25

Evangelion said:
No, ABC said they had received unconfirmed reports which they were trying to confirm.

Exactly. Nobody said ABC had got it from Tweeter. It was the tweeter people who confirmed the reports were false.

I was just pointing out that it was wrong for the poster to blame the mistaken reports on Tweeter

Berserker · 2 Feb 2011 at 19:45

While Cairns mostly escaping was good news (given it has the highest population in the area), Townsville has (to quote ABC) 'copped it', so there's still plenty of damage.

Edit: So Australia has a news site called 'Crikey'. Definitely 'only in Australia!' there.

ps3ud0 · 2 Feb 2011 at 19:47

Yeah you ccould tell from the feeds that Cairns seemed to miss the brunt of it - Townsville as soon as all the webcams went off you know it was gonna be a rough ride

ps3ud0

Berserker · 2 Feb 2011 at 19:51

Watching ABC and they just had a piece on Nick Clegg's 'slacking' (my word, not theirs). Bizarre!

Lopéz · 2 Feb 2011 at 20:29

A girl I was good friends with in school lives in Townsville. Really hope this passes with a minimum of disruption for her but it's pretty grim

OzyOly · 2 Feb 2011 at 22:29

Anyone know how bad things were?

ThePirateHulk · 2 Feb 2011 at 22:42

No reports of deaths or serious injury so that's something to be thankful for.

We're having a money raising event for the QLD floods this week and would hate for their to be more disaster heaped on htese people.

And here's me whinging about the humidity we have in Sydney just now. I should count my blessings.

Trojan · 2 Feb 2011 at 22:50

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