Cyclone Yasi Upgraded To Category 5 *Update*

6am Wed 2 Feb 2011

Yasi upgraded to Category 5

From: AAP
February 02, 2011 6:44AM

TROPICAL cyclone Yasi has been upgraded to category 5 as it nears the north Queensland coast.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) in Brisbane said that at 5am AEDT Yasi was about 650 kilometres east-northeast of Cairns and 650 kilometres northeast of Townsville moving west southwest at 30km/h.

“The cyclone has now reached category five and will continue to move in a west-southwesterly direction during today,” the BoM said on its website this morning.

Read full update here.

Then there’s this from the Herald Sun:

Satellite image from Japan Meteorological Agency circa 10pm 2 Feb 2011 under headline:

Islands and towns evacuated as Cyclone Yasi threatens Queensland

John Ferguson, Wes Hosking
February 02, 2011 12:00AM

 …Cairns was on edge last night as the 250km/h cyclone threatened to engulf the Cairns and Port Douglas region. The bureau is forecasting wind gusts of up to 295km/h at the centre of the storm.

…Residents from Port Douglas to Cairns CBD have been ordered to move to safety by 8am today under the unprecedented mandatory evacuation plan.

 The area’s 190,000-plus population faces the dire threat of cyclonic winds up to 250km/h and a deadly “tsunami-like” storm surge of up to 7m.

Up to a metre of rain – 39 inches in the old measure - was forecast in some areas.

Cooktown to Townsville has  been identified as the danger zone but the storm is expected to affect towns as far south as Mackay and as far west as Mount Isa.

Hundreds of people last night began fleeing up the Great Dividing Range to the Atherton Tablelands to escape the predicted storm surge as officials warned that Yasi was shaping as a terrifying 20-hour event with the tempest’s front up to 500km wide and its eye spanning 100km.

Six evacuation centres have been set up and troops deployed to provide rations, bedding, and emergency response.

…Queensland Bureau of Meteorology director Jim Davidson said that while the bureau had seen cyclones of similar intensity and others of similar size, it was rare to see them in combination.

“This is a double whammy in a sense,” he said.

Read full story update here:

============  UPDATE  ============

[click image to enlarge]

Image erroneously named ‘Tuesday – should read ‘Wednesday’. New touchdown time prediction is set between 8:30pm and 10pm AEST. This new image shows the predicted course, including how far inland the cyclone’s outer storm is expected to extend.

 

Brisbane-Ipswich Dodge the Cyclone

1 February 2011 Tuesday 9pm

It was just announced on our local weather channel, currently dedicated to round-the-clock coverage of tracking Cyclone Yasi, that the Brisbane -Ipswich areas are officially clear of the cyclone. We’ll experience rain, wind and possibly hail, but nothing like the tree-shredding, roof-blowing weather they are going to deal with further north. I am so relieved.

By the way - some Australian reporters and politicians covering this event are pronouncing it ‘yah-zee and others ’yaht-zee’. Like the game.

News.com.au continues to provide timestamped updates on their website with all emergency instructions for those in Cyclone Yasi’s path and have even added a countdown clock. As of this posting, Yasi is scheduled to make landfall in 27 hours – or at aprox. 1am Thursday morning.

BOM has this to say and has upgraded their classification of the storm to read “Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi”. BOM is Australias official centre of meterology. Here’s some of the new report:

Remarks:

YASI IS LARGE AND POWERFUL TROPICAL CYCLONE AND POSES A SERIOUS THREAT TO NORTH QUEENSLAND COMMUNITIES

The Cyclone will continue to intensify and move in a west-southwesterly direction overnight.

DAMAGING winds with gusts to 90 km/hr are expected to develop on the islands during Wednesday morning, then extend onto the coast during the day, and further inland across the northern tropical interior overnight.

Between Cooktown and Ingham these winds will become DESTRUCTIVE with gusts in excess of 125km/hr on Wednesday afternoon and VERY DESTRUCTIVE with gusts above 200 km/hr between Port Douglas and Cardwell during the evening as the cyclone approaches. These VERY DESTRUCTIVE winds will extend onto the coastal ranges including the Atherton Tablelands on Wednesday evening.

As the centre approaches and crosses the coast sea levels between Cairns and Townsville will rise significantly above the normal tide with damaging waves, strong currents and flooding of low lying areas in coastal parts.

Flooding rains will develop from Cooktown to Sarina during Wednesday afternoon and then extend inland overnight.

And remember, this is the forecast for ‘before’ the storm makes landfall.

Hubbs and I are out of immediate danger – but please keep the candles lit and prayers coming for all the thousands of Queenslanders further north who are only just beginning the reality of this nightmare.

OzMud

 

Cyclone Anthony Touches Down in North Qld – Cyclone Yasi is 3 Days Behind *Update-Video*

From the AAP:

Tropical Cyclone Anthony has been downgraded to a low after crossing the Queensland coast near Bowen, south of Townsville.

It was a category two cyclone when it made landfall about 10pm (AEST) on Sunday but quickly weakened into a low pressure system.

Queensland Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Vikash Prasad says there have been rain falls of up to 300mm in the Mackay area.

Mr Prasad said there could be some flash floods with fast stream rises occurring in the upper Pioneer River catchment and the Don River.

There are flood warnings for coastal rivers and streams between Bowen and Sarina, south of Mackay.

“It’s still delivering heavy rain to the northern part of the central highlands,” Mr Prasad told AAP.

“The rain will decrease quite significantly later in the morning.”

He said wind gusts were also dying down after reaching 124km/h at Hamilton Island.

The ex-cyclone is now moving towards Longreach in Queensland’s central west.

A second more damaging cyclone is still heading towards Queensland and is expected to cross the coast on Wednesday night or Thursday.

Cyclone Yasi is just north of Vanuatu, about 2000 kilometres east-northeast of Bowen.

Mr Prasad said the category one cyclone is tracking towards Queensland’s north coast and is expected to intensify very quickly over the coming days.

“It’s too early to know what category it will be (when it crosses) but we would expect it to be at least a category four,” he said.

It appears I got the name wrong in the previous post. The ‘Goliath’ cyclone behind Anthony is called “Yasi”. My ear picked it up as Yeti. One would think, after living here for so many years I wouldn’t still have trouble with the Oz accent or pronounciation of certain words and syllables, but alas that’s not the case. Seems you can take the girl out of the San Francisco educational system, but…

In my defense, I live where a name like Marysborough is commonly pronounced Mir`brah, Indooroopilly is pronounced indrah-pill-ee, pressure has only one ‘r’ (presh-ah) oregano isn’t an (h)erb it’s a her-b and if that’s not bad enough, they pronounce it or-ee-gahn-oh. If I were Italian I’d  cry.

I’ll look for satellite shots of Yasi after I get some work done for the nice lady who puts money in my bank

Today is my last day to visit the Palin blogs. I’m thinking of asking the chemist if there’s a patch…

UPDATE:
There’s already a youtube video of tracking Yasi. Bloody oath!

 

Power’s On – Sun’s Up – River’s Down

12 January 2011
Wednesday

Ventured to the Queen’s Park Lookout for a birdseye view, and then drove around the hospital and behind the library for a closer look.

(Click images to enlarge)

Center of Ipswich:

  

 

The flowers however, are loving this wet weather. We found all of these walking the two blocks from where we parked the car to the roped-off intersection:

   

On the way home we actually found a produce market open and scored fresh bananas, a pineapple, cherry tomatoes and navel oranges.

Then it rained again and the power went off.

13 January 2011
Thursday

The death toll has held at 10 for Southeast Qld but the number missing fluctuates between 48 and 90. We’ve discovered a cousin of ours is stranded and has been without power since Monday evening.  We’re going to try to get to her this afternoon. Spouse has gone off to find bread and milk and another transistor radio.

The sun is out and reports indicate that neither the Brisbane nor the Bremer Rivers rose as high as anticipated which is a really good thing. The consequences of all this water leaving our little hamlets of course means that the hamlets below us on the map will all now and each experience flooding of their own.

Well… I suppose the water has to go somewhere.

Sidenote:  There is a little town called Chincilla – last night it was flooded – for the fourth time in a year. Seems they just recover from one flood and another hits. The company I work for is organizing a drive to collect and deliver food and blankets. Many businesses are doing the same all around the country.

The Australian Federal Govt has reported already handing out more than $17 million to displaced families by way of cash disbursements so people suddenly without homes can buy food and supplies. This amount is expected to quadruple in the next week.

 More later – we’re off to try and reach cousin Margaret.

If you haven’t already, click on the Henkimaa link to the right – just over there >>>
Mel has put together a great post on the Brisbane end of this flood.

-OzMud

 

The Rain Stopped Just Long Enough For The Street To Un-Puddle

11 January 2011 3:00pm

As of two hours ago, 72 people are still missing with 8 confirmed deaths in the southeastern corner of Queensland. My corner. The portion of the Bremer River which affects my neighbourhood is already12.6 meters (aprox 40 ft) above it’s normal height and is still rising. The prediction is that Bremer River will continue to rise overnight, reaching 18-19 meters by midnight and 20-22 meters by morning.

Wivenhoe Dam is reportedly mitigating enough water daily to fill the Sydney Harbour – twice. (Mitigating, I’m told, as it pertains to water in dams is a fancy way of saying swallowing.) Wivenhoe has five floodgates and all five are open and in full operation. A month ago, one spillway was opened to slowly empty the flood storage compartment in response to the unusual amount of rainfall during November and December, and in anticipation of what we’re seeing today.  Good onya city planners…

There are evacuation notices going up for my town - but not for my neighbourhood. The streets needing to be evacuated are all along the river’s edge and lie below tthe predicted 22 meter rise. We are positioned well above. We won’t be in any danger of our home being washed away, but we will be cut off by inaccessible roads. So it’s truly time to stock up and hunker-down.

12 January 2011 4:00am

The suddenly absent drumming of rain on our Queenslander’s iron roof literally woke me from a sound sleep an hour ago. If you’ve never experienced it, the iron rooftops of the older Queenslander homes create a deafening racket under heavy rain or hail. You can stand next to someone outdoors and scream at the top of your lungs and not be understood, it’s that loud. I hollered to a neighbour across the fence during the morning downpour and she just laughed at me, making a hand gesture that meant ‘call me!’ You get used to the sound, though, and it becomes more noticeable when it stops than when it starts.

As of 10pm last night, the local number of missing persons has risen to 78 and the death toll has risen to 10. The power went off during the 10pm updates. I went to sleep, but spouse stayed up listening to evacuation updates on a transistor radio. Around 1am the local supermarket and it’s parking lot went under water, as did my dentist’s office.

We have uninvited guests on our roof and quite possibly in the attic. We think they’re possums but honestly, they sound like elephants tromping overhead. At the moment, I can identify at least two different sets of footsteps and I’m pretty sure they’re playing volley ball up there. (Or having extremely loud sex – I can’t really tell.)

Just after the rain stopped, waking me, the power came back on and I immediately turned on the computer and TV for news. Nothing new since the last radio report, except everyone is incredibly grateful for the break in the rain. Oh and Wivenhoe Dam has dialled back it’s water release for the next 24 hours to slow down the amount of water being dumped into the Brisbane and Bremer Rivers – evidently the real problem still lies ahead as there is a projected seasonal high tide expected to impact on these rivers between 9am and 12 noon today (Wednesday).

While the river is rising, there’s not the flash-flooding that wreaked havoc through Toowoomba yesterday, so while the rain has stopped, we’re thinking of venturing out at first light to see how much of the river we can see from a closer vantage point. I’m also thinking I should post this before the power goes off again.

This isn’t over. We’re in for at least two more days of heavy rain, dam overflows and high tides.

This is the most comprehensive set of reports including photos, stories and videos I found to share.

Until later,
OzMud

PS  Thank you so much for all the kind words of support in the previous comments- and yes, we have our two emergency tubs packed and at the ready.

 

Video Of The Day

@Laura – #7 comment from previous post who asks “…are those really big grasshoppers?”

Well yes, actually, we grow ‘em pretty big here. That said, I’ve seen actual locust just as big in Texas so size may be relative. But as long as we’re on the subject, let me introduce you to a five-minute ‘short’ series quite popular here in Queensland, used to fill empty time gaps between programs. It’s called Miniscule and this just mde me howl. It’s called Grasshopper Catapulte. Enjoy the No-Sarah break

Miniscule: Grasshopper Catapulte

Thank goodness the whole series is up on youtube! Spouse’s favourite is a fly that gets stuck to a bit of bubblegum on the side of the road. I laughed just listening to him laugh in another room

To comment on this post, please scroll up to the title Video of The Day and click the word comments just beneath. Thanks, OzMud

 

Photo Of The Day

From channel 7 News [online] comes the story of how Queensland floodwaters are on the move. Some 1500 km north of yesterday’s huge storm in Melbourne, populated bits of townships and rural communities in my state are several days into isolation and government efforts are now mobilizing to drop food and supplies for both humans and livestock. If you scroll down, you’ll find a list of the affected areas and what’s being organized. The size of the list actually found me a bit overwhelmed. I had no idea that many places were without food or water.

Looks like we’ll all be getting off our duffs and helping out where we can. In the meantime, I’ve pinched this from the website. What a brilliant photo! And yes, the resemblance to the Palin clan did not escape me in light of the latest Swag hag description.

Heh – captions anyone? 

“Grasshoppers cling to a fence post to keep out of floodwaters on Clifton Station at Windorah in western Qld.” Submitted by: Ross and Wendy Groves

To comment on this post, please scroll up to the title: Photo Of the Day and click on the word comments just beneath.  Thanks, OzMud

 

Narnia – On The Fly

Am writing this on the fly – have had overseas company for a week and it’s been a whirlwind of activities, culminating in a rather unexpected life-altering experience which should be at least somewhat interesting to those following the Perils of Palin in these blogs.

It’s going to take a couple of days to put my thoughts together, so for now, please enjoy the absolute best photo taken all week – off the Gold Coast shores of Queensland Australia – the finishing touches being applied to the wharf set of the newest Narnia movie – being filmed practically in my own backyard

Taken from a friend’s boat on 7, Aug 09

 

Mum Nature

Beginning last Sunday, our little corner of Queensland has been under attack by Mother Nature. Rain, hale and wind have worked together to tear roofs from homes, tossing the huge bits of corrugated iron around like frisbees. It’s been coming in waves just about every 36-48 hours all week.

The initial storm lasted 4 hours and dumped a foot of rain. The towers that record lightning strikes along our coast registered more than 3000 hits per hour for the duration of the storm. (Average is 700-1000)

When it hit we were lucky to be just on its rim. The neighbourhoods caught in the center were destroyed. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Queensland Premier Anna Bligh walked through the wreckage on Monday, declaring these suburbs of Brisbane a disaster area, giving residents access to government emergeny funds. Later in the day, at a news conferene, Rudd commented that he felt he’d just walked through a warzone. He announced the immediate assignment of additional funds to each displaced person on top of the normal emergency relief. I believe the sum quoted was $1000 (AUD) each.I thought “Ok. Rudd got it right.”

It’s Saturday. We’ve been cleaning up mud and mopping up water and preparing for the worst all week. The next storm system was estimated to be a category 2 cyclone. The morning news reports featured Premier Bligh encouraging everyone to please, “stay home today”. What woke us at 7am was not the normal sounds of magpies taunting kookaburras, but the scrunching sound of trees banging against the side of the house as if begging to be let in.

So today we were in ‘batten down the hatches’ mode. We made sure there was nothing loose outside. We secured the oudoor plants on the patio, checked our emergency supplies, got out the billy so in case we lost power again we could at least have fresh coffee

And then we listened to the wind, watched the sky and waited. Just after tea, around 5:30, I was sitting at my desk and realized the light was different. I looked out the window and the trees were calm. The sun was out. Birds were chasing each other from telephone wire to treetop. The sky was filled with late-afternoon sunshne and beautiful fluffy clouds. I grabbed the camera, donned shoes and flew out the door to catch what I could before mum changed her mind

This past week has found hundreds of Queenslanders without homes, thousands more without electricity and the icing on the proverbial cake: A roof collapsed dumping bird feces and other contaminates into the Brisbane water supply, rendering some areas without drinkable water.

The thing about Mother Nature is, though, no matter how badly she behaves, she always makes as dramatic an exit as she does an entrance. Here’s what she left behind today, following a week of unrelenting grief:

She left us this…

Oz Sunset (22 November 2008)

and this…

Oz Sunset (22 November 2008)

They just announced clear skies until Wednesday. I can live with that