Category 5 Cyclone Queensland...?

[amicus]

Just looked at radar & satellite images and the area south of Cairns down to Mackay and beyond...175 mph winds, evacuations....reports anyone?

ami

 

[JackLuis]

I saw it reported but don't know how to look at the Radar down under?

 

[DormantEvil]

I have family in Bowen but haven't heard anything from them yet. If I do, I'll post it up here.

 

[amicus]

This is the link I found: http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/radar/ I clicked on the triangle next to Mackay...

ami

 

[TE999]

I wonder if starrkers or perfect_deb are in that neck of the woods?

They haven't been here for a while, though.

 

[amicus]

This storm is way bigger than our Katrina and it is pounding the same area that has had severe flooding for over a month....gotta be bad down there...best wishes to everyone involved...

ami

 

[squarejohn]

Just looked at radar & satellite images and the area south of Cairns down to Mackay and beyond...175 mph winds, evacuations....reports anyone?

ami

Poor Australia. This on top of the recent flooding. Give 'em a break, God.

 

[ishtat]

Yasni has eyewall winds already recorded at 340kph +. She should hit the coast sometime this evening (our time). A 2 to 3 meter tidal surge (on top of a high tide is forecast). Rain of about 1 to 1.5 metres(5 feet) in 36 hours is forecast for the coast (and the ground is already sodden from previous rain)

Not only is Yasi very large but she is very stable and forecast to penetrate far inland.

The only saving grace is that tropical north Queensland and the Northern Territory are very sparsely populated.

Cross fingers.

 

[ishtat]

I wonder if starrkers or perfect_deb are in that neck of the woods?

They haven't been here for a while, though.

starrkers is resident in NSW as are vrosej10 and myself. I think Cold Diesel is a Northerner but am not sure.

 

[amicus]

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-new...-brews-behind-it/story-fn7ik2te-1225998711771

This is one big storm...

ami

 

[JackLuis]

Yes indeed. Big Bad Storm.

Twice as big as Larry!

Size does matter.

 

[TE999]

starrkers is resident in NSW as are vrosej10 and myself. I think Cold Diesel is a Northerner but am not sure.

Good news. Thanks, ishtat.

Having ridden out a few hurricanes myself, I have some idea what they must be going through. I guess Andrew was the nastiest 'cane that's ever hit us here in Florida...that and the '26 Storm (before they were named).

 

[amicus]

http://www.ausgamers.com/forums/general/thread.php/3012761?p=6

This is a site with several live streaming webcams....one at Innisfall, which looks to be near the predicted landfall...interesting...

ami

 

[Handley_Page]

A report from the BBC a few moments ago indicated that this storm is going to be about 21 hours wide and should reach land in about four hours (11am GMT).
Queensland is nearly the size of the EU, and twice as big as Texas.

Cross your fingers folks and invoke your personal God: Batten down the hatches, this one is BIG.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Good news. Thanks, ishtat.

Having ridden out a few hurricanes myself, I have some idea what they must be going through. I guess Andrew was the nastiest 'cane that's ever hit us here in Florida...that and the '26 Storm (before they were named).

The 1928 storm was worse. The 1935 storm killed hundreds in the Keys. In 1848 Tampa was hit twice within 2 weeks; the water was 24 feet deep downtown.

 

[stephen55]

Cyclone Yasi made landfall about 50 km south of Innisfail, in the Cairns area, a few hours ago. This one is Category 5, (out of 5) and comes with a two meter storm surge and up to 700 millimeters of rain...call it almost nine feet of water driven by winds up to 200 mph.

http://images.tvnz.co.nz/tvnz_images/news2011/disaster_overseas/yasi_landfall_2.jpg

This kind of storm is about as bad as it gets.

Northern Queensland is getting pasted. Early reports are of devastating destruction. So far, there are no reported deaths. That is likely going to change...

I have family just north of Brisbane, which is fortunately well south of the storm track. I haven't tried to get them on the phone as I'm sure others need the lines right now.

I don't know what else to say.

 

[colddiesel]

Yasi crossed the coast at about midnight centred at Mission Beach about 90Km north of Ingham and 60Km south of Innisfail. It swerved slightly south in the last hour or so before landfall which meant it has picked a track through one of the most rural and lightly populated sections of the coast. Damage to Sugar and banana crops is almost total, a lot of rural properties wiped out but so far not a single death recorded. Major damage unlikely to be reported for a few hours yet.

No damage further south than Mackay, don't know about northerly limit.

Basically the locals prepared well and were used to this sort of event if not on the same scale.

The front of the storm has crossed the dividing range and is forecast to rapidly downgrade to category 3 then 2. Very heavy rain but nothing unexpected.

I live near Diddillibah on the Sunshine coast about 100Km north of Brisbane so am well away from the excitement.

At this stage it looks as though the northerners have largely dodged the bullet.

 

[Babeslady]

One Big Arse cyclone

I feel for the people living inland. Julia Creek and Georgetown are not used to dealing with cyclones but today they are feeling it.

Was freaky listening to news reports from people who spent the night in it. Glad there are no injuries or missing people yet. Also amazed that a baby was born at an evacuation centre this morning!!!! She will NOT be named Yasi. LOL

 

[FelMarch]

Well, Yasi has been and gone. My wife and I live in the Cairns area; we got power back on Saturday afternoon and Internet shortly after, although the latter is still pretty dodgy (the amount of times I've had to hit "Reload" just to get into this thread...).

Still, at the moment, there are plenty of other folks further suth than us wihtout power and who will likely remain without it for days, if not weeks. We have plenty of crews from the power company; the problem is that they can't get to the down areas until emergency services clear and check the roads. In Cardwell, the sea split the main road in half and sucked the broken chunk back out onto the beach, then filled in the gap with a three-metre pile of sand.

What's worse is the reports we've heard that insurance companies are not going to pay out on the houses destroyed not by the cyclone itself but by the storm surge it caused.

 

[AlwaysAlone1986]

What's worse is the reports we've heard that insurance companies are not going to pay out on the houses destroyed not by the cyclone itself but by the storm surge it caused.

Seriously? It's like the floods all over again! They're argueing about the definition of 'Flood' again aren't they and which 'type of flood' is cover in someones policy. Why can't you just be covered for a flood, regardless of whether it is 'flash flooding', 'flooding from broken plumbing' or 'seapage from a river' It's all the same thing, a flood!!

It just makes me so mad that all these people have all this damage and their insurance doesn;t cover it! My heart goes out to all those affected!!

 

[colddiesel]

What's worse is the reports we've heard that insurance companies are not going to pay out on the houses destroyed not by the cyclone itself but by the storm surge it caused.

I don't believe this gossip at all. I used to have a place near Port Douglas which was messed up by a major storm and neither I nor my neighbors had any problems with the insurers. I had a $90,000 claim paid within 6 weeks.

The people who started the row about insurance cover in Brisbane were the politicians. The same politicians that allowed developers to build on flood prone land so that the local government and the State government would get major fees from the developers. The governing planning authorities will be sued in a class action by those who had no flood cover for allowing building in flood prone areas... and the plaintiffs will win.

The Insurance complaint was largely a pre-emptive strike by the state and local governments to take attention away from their own inadequate planning decisions.

 

[Handley_Page]

And real dangerous fires in Perth.