We personally are too far south for this to be life-threatening for us. We will get weather effects but frankly, we will welcome any rain and storm we can get here, s overflow. But not at the expense of our countrymen north. Here we are in the second or third day (I'm losing count) of extreme heatwave, and it will only be the flow-on from the cyclone breaking the heatwave if the effects reach us. We are still going to break all previous records for heatwave here.
Now to Queensland - those poor (insert Aussie word which technically means children of unmarried parents, but in Australia has very complex and non-derogatory meanings). The rain will be falling on ground still waterlogged from pre-Christmas floods, the ones Oprah flew over. The floods that were happening when Oprah went to air were a continuation and the vast bulk of the fatalities were due to that one nasty "inland tsunami" that hit Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley. Before that and after that, much of Queensland was flooded. The more coastal flood emptied at Brisbane (the capital) which almost broke records. The more inland flood continued south to the bottom of Australia and is I believe still affecting that area. But not so severely - it has lost a lot along the way.
Australia, geographically, is one of the flattest countries in the world. It is the flattest continent. We have one major mountain range, it is down the east coast of Australia, a varying distance inland. It runs like a backbone inland from the east coast, similar to the Rockies in the US (only longer). Rain often doesn't get over the mountains, which is why Australia is such a dry continent. But with these floods - it rained heavily on both sides. To the west - the rivers run south. Huge river basins, mostly dry as a rule, filled up. To the east of the mountains it built up and caused the sudden surge that was so horrifying. But at least it eventually found its way out to sea without travelling thousands of kilometres.
Now - those areas further north are still soggy. And they're about to get FEET of rain. I'm watching the morning news now, the storm is beginning to be felt, on a wider scale than predicted. Police and the army have been knocking on doors in areas now identified as in the path of the increasingly high storm surge. Areas previously believed to be safe - are not.
Major General Mick Slater has been put in charge of the Queensland flood recovery, and (I gather) is also in charge of the evacuation/preparation for the cyclone. He's on repeated warning announcements in the media, repeating the evacuation procedures. Just to confirm - cyclone = hurricane. We just have a different name for it.
We have almost run out of time for people to evacuate. The airport at Innisfail will close in less than two hours and the winds are already rising there. Large shopping malls are being used as shelters, but it's similar to the football stadium in New Orleans - no facilities there, it's just a roof over people's heads to keep them alive. Power is likely to be out and those places can get DARK. I wouldn't want to be there - but then, I wouldn't want to stay in a home that couldn't survive. This is a tourist area and a lot of the tourists don't speak English. Police are walking up to people in the street as well as knocking on doors.
Building codes in the area are good. But are they THIS good? That is why people are so anxious.
In Australia we've had some nasty cyclones in recent years. Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin in 1974 on Christmas Day, it was so unexpected that nobody realised for a day or so, that the town had been badly damaged. We saw the New Orleans footage and it reminded us of Darwin after Tracy. But Darwin has been rebuilt now, stronger. And Tracy = would fit inside the EYE of this cyclone! Tracy was described as a midget hurricane - tiny but intense.
About three years ago this same part of Queensland in trouble now, was hit by Cyclone Larry. That was category 4. This is category 5, plus many times bigger.
Storm surge - a king tide is due at 9 pm. Storm surge is expected on top of this - at least 2 metres, some say three metres. That would be 10 feet. And it would slam in, and late at night. In the dark - no power. They don't wait for the power to fail, they will be shutting it off early, as they did in Brisbane. That way they can protect circuitry etc and speed up post-cyclone recovery.
Yasi is huge. 1000 km across, the eye is 100 km across. It is coming in straight, not deviating, so they are confident in predicting its path.
We do get cyclones in the northern part of Australia at this time of the year. But this is huge. Again, fuelled by La Nina. But this is a warmer La Nina than usual, which is probably why Yasi is so big.
They just said on the news - an hour ago the cyclone reached Willis Island, early winds recorded at 190 km/hr in their first report. They have not reported since - the weather bureau believe the weather station has been destroyed.
This will be bad, but as in the floods (perhaps even more so), emergency services start their work before the catastrophe, to minimise the loss of life and damage. Our army and police have legal powers in such a crisis, but they don't abuse these powers. It is what we do to survive as a nation. This works for us, when life throws crud at you.
I repeat - we are fine. We will be fine. This is all happening 2000 km away. I know the cyclone is half that size, but that's diameter. We're 2000 km from the eye, which means the edge of the cyclone is 1500 km from us.
It will hit tonight or tomorrow morning, in the wee small hours. But everything is being done now, that an be done, to keep people as safe as possible. Evacuation window is just about closed now. After that - prayer.
Marg