FNQ braces for Yasi
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The impact of cyclone Yasi, currently brooding off the far north Queensland coast, is “likely to be more life threatening than any experienced during recent generations,” declared the Bureau of Meteorology this morning. Yasi is currently rated a category five storm, the most severe classification available for cyclones. Winds are expected to reach 302km/h in some areas, with winds of 295km/h expected near its core when it hits the coast between Cairns and Innisfail. To compare, winds in Hurricane Katrina — another category five — were 280km/h. It’ll be a terrifying day for locals, warns Queensland Premier Anna Bligh. “Whether it’s cyclonic devastating winds, storm surge, or torrential rain further west as a result of this, we are facing an extreme event that will not be over in 24 hours, but will possibly take several days before the full flooding effect is felt across the region as well, potentially right through to Mount Isa.” “We are facing a storm of catastrophic proportions in a highly populated area. You’ve heard all of the statistics and what it all adds up to is a very, very frightening time for people and their families,” said Bligh, who seems to be back holding regular press conference updates just like she was during the floods. Bligh told residents this morning that they had one hour to flee before the winds became too strong, which she expected would be by midday today. At 10pm tonight the brunt of the cyclone is expected to hit the coast. The eye of the storm — currently 35km wide — will take an hour alone to pass. A whopping 30,000 people have been told to evacuate from Cairns. “Just grab each other and move to a place of safety,” warned Bligh. Evacuated patients and residents from Cairns hospitals began arriving in Brisbane this morning. Another 216 people from nursing homes have been evacuated. The Stockland Shopping Centre — currently being used as an evacuation centre — is full and two new evacuation centres will open in Cairns, reports the Cairns Post. Thousands of properties are at risk, 341 schools have closed this week and the Cairns and Townsville airports will close this morning. To get an idea of what Townsville, Cairns, Innisfail and surrounding regions are preparing for, track Yasi on this Bureau of Meteorology cyclone tracking map:
Pay close attention to the time stamps, which show it continuing to be a category five at 4pm today just off the coast from Innisfail. It’s expected to stay a category five storm until tomorrow. This map — click through for the moving image — shows the size and power of Yasi compared to smaller storms around the rest of Australia. (Note this hasn’t been updated since yesterday, and the cyclone has got significantly worse since then.)
This comparison of cyclone Yasi with hurricane Katrina, cyclone Tracy and cyclone Larry shows just how devastating this storm could be.
For some more compare and contrast with cyclone Tracy, take a look at this image, put together by Robert Watson on Twitter:
“We look to what happened with cyclone Tracy where people ended up under mattresses in bathrooms and that may be the situation here,” Cairns Mayor Val Schier told ABC News. Already the facts show this is a significant natural disaster for Queensland. An infographic in The Australian shows exactly how cyclones destroy homes, with the wind pressure blowing upwards and outwards, collapsing walls and knocking roofs off.
Anna Bligh warned of a two-metre storm surge when the hurricane hits. An “extremely dangerous” sea level rise, causing flooding, extremely damaging waves and strong currents has authorities concerned. Local residents are already reporting isolated flooding. To get an idea of what this sea level rises mean, Melissa Doyle on Sunrise this morning showed how high the waters are expected to reach.
Queensland Police — the media unit was outstanding in getting out information in the recent Queensland floods — is again giving constant updates on its Twitter and Facebook pages. “#TCYasi’s eye is 35km wide at Willis Isl. It will take an hour to pass over” it tweeted. According to reports, the Willis Island observation station may have been destroyed as no contact has been made since the cyclone hit. “Latest advice is that it will be unsafe to be outside after midday today from Douglas to Townsville,” it announced on Facebook.
A look at the newspaper front pages illustrates the fears held over this storm…
But at least the folk at the Hog’s Breath cafe in Cairns have kept their sense of humour:
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21 Comments
Well done Amber, a really good synthesis of the best bits in the news.
I’m really impressed with BoM computer models.
They know this cyclone is going to be ‘more life threatening’ than the 1918 cyclone which killed about 100 people.
http://www.bom.gov.au/cyclone/about/cyclones-eastern-impacts.shtml
RE: According to reports, the Willis Island observation station may have been destroyed as no contact has been made since the cyclone hit.
Contact at the Bureau’s Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre in Brisbane tell me that the staff on Willis were evacuated yesterday well before the heavy winds started.
The headline on the on-line page says:
“Queensland cyclone: Yasi bares down on far north Queensland coast”. Would that be until completely naked?
TONES9
RE “I’m really impressed with BoM computer models.”
It’s not just models! As a 45+ year Bureau scientist, now retired, I’m getting really irritated by the frequent references by people like the Qld premier and her top emergency officials, to things like “the models are telling us”. It should be “the meteorologists are (or the Bureau is) telling us”. Apart from the fantastic improvements in modelling, we’ve had fantastic improvements in observations and fantastic improvements in scientific understanding of how the atmosphere ticks. All of these are why the Bureau’s performance is so good. It’s an unsung national treasure!
Doorrag, are you so earnest that you don’t detect my sarcasm?
Let’s hope the BoM is wrong and more than 100 people are not killed.
I wouldn’t be boasting about the Bureau’s performance after they failed to warn about the flash flooding in Queensland.
TONES9
Thanks
I feel I should grovel to those fellow north Queenslanders who may not have appreciated the unintended ambiguity in my previous post. Cyclone Yasi could well ‘lay bare’ a large chunk of lowland Wet Tropics rainforest in the fantastic conjoined catchments of the Russell and Mulgrave rivers - coming down off the Belleden Ker Range near Babinda. This range, which includes Queensland’s highest peak, Mt Bartle Frere, overlooks the coast a few kilometres away and is probably the wettest place with a functioning rain gauge in Australia. The watershed of the back-to-back rivers is an east-west ridge and saddle behind Mt Bellenden Ker (c 1600m) where the Mulgrave heads north and the Russell south emerging from behind the mountain onto the swamps and canefields below. The Mulgrave River crosses the Bruce Highway at Gordonvale while the Russell River does the same about 15 kilometres south, both looping towards the coast where they join up again in the mangroves at Russell Heads. The Frankland Islands group (NP) is visible about 10 kms offshore. It’s a unique landscape in Australia’s river catchments.
As the wind rises and the rain gets serious here on Magnetic Island, I’m thinking of my mates in Innisfail and Cardwell, in Fishery Falls and Mission Beach, who are going to cop a pounding tonight. Good luck guys.
I’ve been listening to the QLD premier on New Radio. She’s bizzarre. She seems on playing up how terrifying this cyclone is going to be and how afraid everyone should be. You’d think a calming voice would be more appropriate. But then, I think Ms Bligh has gone from rescuer in chief to all embracing state mother.
Patrick, the emergency was/is such that several thousand people (literally) were required to pack up and leave home along the storm surge threatened coast. With, say, 6 hours notice. There were not enough personnel available to personally explain to each of those households why they needed to go RIGHT NOW. Anna Bligh had one great opportunity - during the 30 second sound bite she knew absolutely everyone would see on TV last night. I think she told it like it is and reckon that most of those people scared out of their houses with their kids, blankets and pillows early today will not be regretting it. They can sleep a bit in company tonight with able people looking after them.
Well on News radio she went on and on about it. She knew how many people there were staffing the first weather observation station in the path of the storm as well. I mean, does a Premier really need to know that and even if she does, do we?
We cannot believe that there is no mention, unless we missed it, of Cyclone Monica which hit Maningrida on 24 April 2006. It was Oz’s most severe recorded cyclone at Extreme Category 5. But then again it was just…
An adopted “fellow QLD-er”, I am doing absolutely nothing practical but I am sending all good karma, prayers, wishes and like to everyone up north. I hope you stay safe tonight.
Patrick Brosnan,
There is a small percentage of utter cretins who may not have grasped the gravity of the impending cyclone - or perhaps tourists who are oblivious to the extraordinary danger.
After all, we had died-in-the-wool morons skylarking in the recent flash floods in Queensland - they were an impediment to emergency workers who had to take risks to save them from themselves.
If, in your opinion, Bligh overdid the Yasi warnings, so what? In the circumstances I’d deem it better to overdo the message rather than underplay it with “a calming voice”.
zut alors
I agree. You cannot overestimate the danger of a CAT 5 cyclone.
Bligh is a much disliked two-faced liar politician (is that typical?) & most Qlders are sick of her spin & rhetoric. She leads a corrupt state cabinet, some of her collegues are now residing in their own jail cells. Hell, she doesnt even have the support of her own Union backers. Most of us locals who have to tolerate her rampant stupidity are even more shocked with the constant patronising bullspeak she generates when she takes the podium during every disaster speech. The last few weeks it seems to be occuring every day.
We can all see that she is milking all these naturual disasters for pure political points. Sadly its all she has left in her game book. Mothering us all with hyped vacant phrases is truly pathetic. In fact I can’t stand it any longer. I just hope that most of the electorate don’t fall for all the false apathy, fake reassurances & shallowness and remember the public damage her gov’t has created when the next election occurs. Of course Bligh will constantly remind us of how good a leader she was during our “darkest hours”.
Shadow Boxer,
They all lie. The only differences being that some lie more than others and some are more proficient at it.
Bligh is my local member and I have little time for her. However, her woeful government is better than the alternative. If you haven’t done so, ‘treat’ yourself to a stint at George Street in the visitors’ gallery at Parliament House and observe the Opposition in full flight. I regularly do so when my stomach can handle it.I’ve never seen such a lacklustre rabble to match them; wave a feather duster in their direction and they are overpowered, useless, a waste of space.
Don’t believe me? Take a pew in the visitors’ gallery, a single session should do it. Incredibly, they make the Bligh lineup look good.
Ewwww no thanks. My best effort would be to visit her electoral office for the awesome kababs that are sold next door. lol
Having family and friends about to go through the battering of their lives I think Bligh hit the right tone in telling it like it is. Having been through a piddling Cat 2 that wrecked the shed on our farm snapping 4x2’s in half and spearing them into the ground was scary enough for me so a Cat 5 scares the shit out of me. Trouble is tourist towns are full of transient populations who don’t understand how destructive these things can be. Anyone who has knows their power and gets on their bike and makes preparations. I am no fan of the Bligh government but she is hitting the right message on this one. Frankly I don’t give a shit if she is milking natural disasters for political advantage so long as no one gets killed, which unfortunately I am afraid is going to happen. If anyone is milking this disaster it is the networks who are sending journalists into this event. I did have a moment of schadenfreud when I saw one of them finally get what they had let themselves in for.
I for one won’t be getting much sleep tonight and I hope to here from my family in the morning.
Bob Mad Katter on Lateline complained about the media terrifying the public then terrified them himself before big noting himself.
He’s a complete nutbag, but we knew that anyway.
Good luck to all in the storm.
I’m just back online after nearly three days although I have had power back on for 24 hours - thankyou Ergon! I could be examining the entrails of the Telstra copper phone system but frankly, I can’t be bothered. I’ve got a phone that works.
I’m sure the people of Tully Heads, Mission Beach and Cardwell are happy that the Premier’s direct appeal and warning had the desired effect the other day. If she ever feels tired and emotional she’s welcome at my place for a cool drink and a good lie down.
Shadow Boxer should examine the meaning of “false apathy”. If he/she/it meant false empathy then quite obviously they have no idea what they are talking about. As for the “much disliked two-faced liar politician”, exactly which media does that stuff come from?