More details here:
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/cairns-residents-in-awe-of-impending-cyclone-20110201-1abmx.html

Take care, everyone. Hope you are all safe or have been able to evacuate to a safe place.
Our 10:30pm news bulletin has just stated Cairns is in the line of fire. I hope it is not too damaging for the area. Will be thinking of you all over the next few days.

Kia Kaha. (Be strong)

Dot

Thanks Dot, Maria and I have just about completed preparations at our place and have done a circuit of the neighbourhood. Most people are well prepared ( some oldies evacuating to safer places or to be with relatives) but I wish I could get two couples to take it more seriously. The things they leave out are potential missiles to hit not only their homes but those of our friends and us!

The size of the thing worries me. Because it is so large the storm will take a long to to pass and that increases the risk of serious damage. The wind will just flog things for hours.

Saw lots of flying foxes heading south west this evening and almost none stopped to feed near here. There were a couple of streams from the one colony heading in parallel None used our large eucalypt as a staging post as they usually do. Wonder if the colony is deserted in the morning? Might just have to go take a look if the winds have not become too bad over night.

All the best, Alan, Pat & any other Fodorites in Yasi's path.

We'll be on sarwatch for you, so please let us know you're ok when you can. In the meantime, we'll understand you might just have one or two other things on the go ... and that your phones & power may be out for a while.


Interesting about the flying foxes, Alan. I remember immediately before I felt the tremor of Newcastle's 1989 earthquake, every bird, cicada & other insect suddenly silenced. My cat hackled up and growled.

I just had time to register the eerie silence and the strange air, when the tremor rolled through. And I was in Sydney (100 kms south).

That's what worries me too, Alan, this cyclone is huge and will cover so much area.

Already Cairns hospitals have been evacuated, my neighbour has just taken in two dogs from the local RSPCA, which is on low lying ground.

Almost impossible to get onto Qantas, my Kiwi brother in law had to drive out to Cairns airport after waiting for nearly two hours on Qantas phone line - Qantas priority being to get Australians out of Egypt.

But a big "boo" to Telstra, last minute cyclone shopping today included a new charger for mobile, no other shop in Cairns Central shopping mall was closed, but Telstra was, on a normal business weekday. We're bound to lose power for God knows how long, so a mobile does make life a bit easier.

(((Australia)))

My goodness. Stay safe!

Cyclone Yasi now upgraded to a catagory 5

Stay safe all those in North Queensland

Popping in as I have been so worried about all of you that are in the path of the cyclone. Mother Nature has not been good to your Australia. My best from Northern California, you are certainly in my thoughts.

Thanks for that LoveItaly. We are beginning to wonder what we have done to deserve this much attention from the Gods of wrath.
May I add my thoughts to you all in North Queensland and hope that you are all safe and well this time tomorrow.
Love to all up there.

Battened down and logging off.
Alan

Be safe. It's certainly been a time of wild weather. Thinking of all of you there and will be watching the weather news.

Good luck

I've been following this on the Perth news and it's sounding worse and worse. Good luck to those of you in Yasi's path.

Stay safe up there - my thoughts are with you all! And please post back when you can - we'll be waiting anxiously!

Best wishes Pat, Alan and others. You will be in our thoughts. I hope you come through ok and it seems you have made appropriate arrangements. Stay strong!

I have been thinking of you Pat and Alan and any others. Please stay safe and follow any instructions. If you are told to get out then do so. Otherwise batten down and hide in the bathroom.

Thanks all - all evacuation centres in Cairns and Cassowary Coast areas are now full, so we're all sitting tight now at home, as battened down as we can.

Just heard there's mandatory evacuations in Hinchinbrook coastal areas and latest advice is that Cyclone Yasi will make landfall between the towns of Innisfail and Cardwell as a Category 5. Innisfail (some 90km south of Cairns) suffered terrible damage by Cyclone Larry in 2006, they don't need this again.

Get back to that bathroom Pat and stay safe! Write when all is OK and put us out of our misery.

Oooh...it's looking scary! Our thoughts are with those of you in FNQ. Stay safe!!

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

Scary

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/cyclone-yasi-home-webcam

Wishing the best to all our Australian friends. You're in my thoughts.

Likewise. Having visited Northern Queensland a few years ago and really falling for the place (and people), it is horrifying to see the videos on the news. I hope all remain safe and well. Good luck.

Thinking of you all...




Muck

I got a quick call from Pat Woolford this morning to say that they were OK and Mike, Pat's husband, was already out with his leaf blower cleaning up the broken branches and leaves. The phones are still out and her mobile phone is not working but she is managing by using her brother-in-law's mobile.
I don't know if they got any structural damage but no doubt when services are up again all will be revealed.
I think that North Queensland was extremely lucky given the intensity of that storm. So far no deaths or injuries have been recorded and hopefully that will remain the case.

Thanks for the update inbe!

I also thank you for the update. We had looked online at the weather map earlier today and wondered how everyone was faring.

Hello all - I saw the link posted by Barbara in the Lounge showing the size of this storm and I can't believe my eyes. I knew it was big, but nothing like that.

Just wanted to say that we're thinking of you, and hope the storm passes quickly as possible.

Have been thinking of our Fodorites and others from Australia and hoping you are staying safe.

glad to hear good reports. Good luck to all you Aussies--and travelers!! A good friend started her week long scuba diving trip off Cairns on Monday, but happy to say that she got back before the storm hit. They're in a resort a mile from the coast, hoping to be able to fly out in a few days!!

Good forward planning, houses built to withstand cyclones, people safely in evacuation centres, people who listened to the warnings and finally some luck was what made this event less than catastrophic.
My heart goes out to the farmers who have lost their crops though and those people who did sustain damage. At least you have your lives and that is the main thing.
Stay well!

Thanks from me, too, inbe. Have been worrying during the day at school, and frustrated not being able to keep up with the news. Thankful to learn there have been no deaths so far, but 3 safe births.

Alan here safe and well.

One death from asphyxiation. He used a generator in a sealed room! If I was still teaching I might use this example as a reason to pay attention in science! Two of the four people reported missing have turned up.

We had more damage to our yard and the nearby forest from Cyclone Larry 5 years ago. Still, some recovering trees snapped near the spot where they had regrown.

Maria asked me not to use the chain saw while she was away at work today so that comes out tomorrow morning.

We only lost power for 15 hours which is rather amazing.

Hope there are no more deaths in the snow storm in North America.

Good to hear you are all right Alan. Steve asked last night if you'd been heard from. Eek about the guy using a generator in a sealed room!

Be safe with that chain saw

Toucan2, give Steve some cheek from me.

Chain sawing almost complete. The acacia which came down into my neighbour's paddock is being consumed by the cows; good high protein food. So I'll leave it there for the moment and throw the stems back across the fence once the leaves are eaten.

My 90yo plus timber Queenslander house weathered the cyclone without a creak; lots of chainsaw activity here too Alan, finally just got power restored after 30 hours, big tree came down on power lines around the corner, so fridges and freezer contents ruined - generator seized up after about one hour. Grrrr So only contact with outside world via phone or battery operated radio. Yesterday all landlines in Cairns were out, but restored pretty smartly.

Only a couple of big banana trees down at our place, plus branches and the usual palm fronds everywhere. Incredibly heavy rain in Cairns the day after cyclone hit, so pool full of mud, but that's nothing compared with the poor folks around Tully and Cardwell.

Dunk Island Resort off Mission Beach; looks disastrous, I haven't seen anything yet on Bedarra but it must have copped a real hammering too.

But everything almost up and running as normal in Cairns, some reef trips went out today (calm and sunny) and more to go out tomorrow.

Bedarra is a mess.

I have seen some strange sea birds around the place since the cyclone but none came to my place to improve my home list. At least I got pictures of the Frigatebird in case I have to justify myself.

I was just thinking this evening - IMO they should make it mandatory to build all new structures in North Queensland so that they're cyclone proof. Is there an existing law like this? Should there be one? (Are you in government and are you reading this?)

Lavandula

Pat, good to hear your place is alright as well. Shame about the fridge and freezer. A friend of mine had to toss hers a few years back when the evacuation for a hurricane ended up being more than a week away. The stench just couldn't be gotten out.

Alan, I think you best post that picture of the frigatebird on your blog site

Relieved to see Pat and Alan safely back. Good luck with the clearing of debris, folks.
Alan, did the frigate bird drop in from Norfolk Island?!

Both Lesser and Great Frigatebirds are common off the Queensland coast.

Toucan2, I might just do that.

Lavandula, there has been Government requirements to build houses that are cyclone rated for years now but of course there are still homes and buildings that were built prior to those laws being introduced.
I had a home built after the introductions of those laws and depending where you lived you had to have the house rated to withstand a level 3,4 or 5 cyclone. That meant huge bracings if it was something like a pole home with extra means of support for roofs etc at all levels.
Strangly though one cyclone that I went through, 3 entire new suburbs of Townsville were smashed to pieces with many roofs taken off and walls downed but the older homes, mainly old Queenslanders ( at the time mine was one of those ) which had been built with all hardwood timber, withstood the impact without damage. I think it depends mainly on the year some houses were built and with what materials.
Having said that, in cyclones you will see one house standing amongst a street of rubble and wonder why it came through unscathed.
I think that if the cyclone building codes where not in place
there would have been a lot more damage to homes in and around Cairns and Atherton Tablelands.
I am just so pleased to see that they came out of this one so well.

Thanks, inbe - it sounds like government was on top of this way earlier than I was.

I've heard before about how storms can destroy homes more or less arbitrarily. I'm glad yours came through it well.

Lavandula

I doubt that the Government had too much to do with the legislation, I suspect that it was more the Insurance Industry then the Government. It is interesting to know that the Queensland Government is the only State Government which does NOT have disaster insurance. What do you think would happen if people did not have insurance for their homes and then asked the Government for help?

Glad to hear that you got off relatively lightly Pat and Alan. The pictures from Tully etc were amazing. It would be almost impossible to work out where to start in the terms of the clean up.

One of the ironies of the cyclone is that we put in an insurance claim today for flood/storm damage to our house down here in Melbourne as a result of the rain from the remnants of the cyclone. It wouldn't have occurred to me in a million years that we could be affected here. It is an indication of just how big the system was. Fortunately flooding for us was only minor. We may need to replace the floorboards, do some painting but we were able to basically move most of the stuff out of the rooms before it was a problem.

What I can't understand, Alan, is how the birds survive a blast like this. They were understandably very quiet around here for many hours pre-cyclone, but the next morning the Torres Strait pigeons were into the palm seeds (what is left of them) in front yard, and the kookaburras were laughing their heads off.

Toucan, it was three fridges with freezers, lots of ruined food, but everything in them was dumped yesterday, before the smell could permeate - it was good of Cairns Council to put on an off-schedule garbage removal otherwise it wouldn't have been picked up until Wednesday. By then it would be ponging badly!

But always the odd moment of levity, ABC talkback radio did a good job of covering the cyclone, someone was worried about his chooks (hens to US readers) so he popped them into his bathroom for safety, chooks had a great time staring at themselves in bathroom mirror, and owner was rewarded with eggs for breakfast, laid in the bathtub.

Shandy, I believe you got the remnants of Anthony.

Toucan, go here to see the frigatebird. My little camera was hard pressed but you can see what it is. http://alanswildlife.blogspot.com/2011/02/yasi-another-cyclonic-event-and-her.html

Pat, the birds and indeed most animals go to ground, literally,during a severe storm. As the winds from Larry were easing I went outside with a helmet on and had birds moving around my ankles. I almost stepped on a Barking Owl. One of the animals which wont climb down is the Green Ringtail Possum which will just hang on tighter to its roost branch. After Cyclone Larry quite a few dead ones were found while all the tree kangaroos I knew survived the blow. Some did not survive the loss of habitat. A number of trees have snapped off just where they regrew after Larry. The forest is looking very open at the moment.

I'm glad you were able to get everything cleared out Pat. Love the story about the fellow and his chickens.

Thanks Alan. I checked out that picture as well as the other posted, then found myself backtracking through earlier posts, and this is how I find myself having lost large portions of my life, wandering down branching trails online.

Toucan, perhaps it is really 'widely wasteful wandering' for 'www' or something like that.

Glad to hear you're safe & sound everyone.

Glad to hear you're safe & sound everyone.

Ditto!!!

The bird news gets even more exciting.
http://alanswildlife.blogspot.com/

Very cool Alan.

I just love the thrush's eyebrow, Alan. Looks perfectly formed - the envy of many a young lady, methinks.
Have my Slater Field Guide to Australian birds out to look up the thrush - no luck - and the Torres Strait pigeon. What a beautiful bird. Not seen any of these - yet!

Dotty,
The Thrush is normally to be found in Siberia and migrates south to South-East Asia. A couple or so a year are found in Singapore and there is at least one record from Java but this is an Australian first. If you have European or north Asia books on birds that is where you should look.

As to the Torresian or Pied Imperial Pigeon, there are a few which remain all year in the Cairns area so that if you come to the GTG I can show them to you.

What a lure! Not sure if I could get two days off school - in fact not sure when flights between Auckland and Cairns go. Will have a look now.

Just to get an idea of the damage caused by Yasi, have a look at the pics in local Cairns paper - www.cairns.com.au - little damage to Cairns but areas south took a beating. The broken and almost sand-buried road in the Cardwell pictures is the Bruce Highway, the main road north (or south).

The devastation from these kinds of storms is just so shocking. When I drove through some areas after a hurricane on the Texas coast a few years ago, I thought it looked like a war zone.

Thanks for sharing the link, Pat.

A friend just sent me this ...

On Saturday just gone, at Karrinyup Shopping Centre (Western Australia) the Variety Club Youth Choir organized a FLASH MOB where they all were incognito in the Food Hall, and started standing up in groups singing "We are Australians" - The purpose it to raise money for the QLD floods. Each time it is clicked on, money is raised thru google ads, SO PLEASE WATCH !!!!!! It is a beaut way of supporting those poor flood stricken Aussies over on the other side of our country.

Go to - http://www.youtube.com/storytellermedia

Thanks for this Bokhara. I hadn't heard about it before. I've passed the link on to all my friends so lets hope it goes viral. I love this song and would love to have it as our National Anthem but that is a whole other debate.

Thank you, Bokhara. What a wonderful renditon of "I am Australian". I have The Seekers' recording of it, and play it regularly, because I love it. Well done, those young people. Hope their efforts will raise much money.
I am about to send the link to my friends and family.

Very cool Bokhara - that's my neighborhood shopping center, and I had no idea!

And here was I wondering which one of the singers was you, Melnq8! Weren't they good?