Yasi is now beginning to hit the mainland with its centre just south of the town of Innisfail. Innisfail is 1,300km NW of Brisbane and is one of the places we visited last September. The strongest winds occur in the "eyewall" of the cyclone (the part that surrounds the calm eye) but the cyclone will cause storm winds up to 400km each side and will take about 12 hours to pass.We're not directly affected in Brisbane but it's really going to stretch the volunteers and emergency services who are still busy with the flood cleanup. After the cyclone has hit the coast it will weaken as it moves inland, but will still be a category 3 cyclone when it reaches the mining town of Mt Isa, 800km inland of Innisfail. This cyclone really is big. See its size here compared to other continents around the world.
Surprisingly it is not the winds that are the most dangerous element: More deaths occur because the wind pushes up a storm surge of water and the predictions are that this will be 7m above normal high tide at cyclone's centre. A storm surge doesn't rise slowly like the Brisbane river floods did but comes in in powerful waves. Many of the towns along the coast are barely above sea level so there are a lot of homes and businesses that going to be flooded. Tens of thousands of people were ordered to evacuate, though a few people have chosen to stay. As of now (9:30pm) no emergency services will operate or try to rescue anyone until the cyclone has passed as it is too dangerous to go out.
Cyclone Yasi on 2011-02-02 at 19h32 AEST (Queensland time), about to hit the coast
Once again the Queensland government's communication and management has been fantastic. The premier, Anna Bligh, and the police chief give TV news conferences every hour to give the latest information of what's happening, what people must do, and what is expected to happen over the next few days. The Queensland Police service also sends out messages of advice and informatinon on Twitter and Facebook every few minutes. One of the things Anna Bligh warned of is that the main electricity transmission line serving the whole of north Queensland is going to be hit by the cyclone and that may bring down one or more pylons. If it does then the whole of northern Queensland will be without power for some time.
In local news...
With the power on in our apartment building and the lights working at last I was able to move almost everything from our old apartment to the new apartment with the help of a man-with-a-van (though I didn't need his van). It's just the big appliances and couch that will need to wait until the lift is working. Just to add to the current challenges, someone reversed into our car yesterday so that now needs to go into the panel shop.
Lots more news sure to come.
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