Evacuations begin ahead of cyclone Yasi

dunno if this has been posted

www.bom.gov.au...

To think all my friends and relatives laughed at me when I moved to South Australia.

Seriously though, this storm is a monster, and it's not looking good at all. Part of me is awe-inspired at what nature is capable of, the other is praying harm is kept to a minimum. I pray for those in it's path. God speed Queenslanders, you've all been through so much already and for this to occur is just a smack in the face. Hang in there!

Yes agreed. This morning just declared a category 5! Getting too scary for me even and I don't live up there - I am so worried for everyone in North Queensland.

reply to post by Australiana


5!

I feel sick

Here is a map tracker -
yasi

It's a "severe" category 5 now.
Just heard on the morning news that there is 3 hours left to get out, after that anyone left behind will have to find shelter. Police are actually doing sweeps telling people to leave now. They are telling people don't even worry about packing your stuff now, just go.
The airports in the cyclones path are being shut down in approximately 30 minutes.

They are now warning storm surges may be higher then predicted.

And they are trying to downplay the chance of another cyclone in two weeks, saying that the BOM advised them late last year that this season there could be as many as 6 cyclones. So far this is the third to hit Queensland, in 5 weeks. First one brought on the massive floods. Second one a week ago, now this monster.
They either know another one is coming, or are just trying to prevent panick in an already battered population.

Oh, I see.

I heard today on talk back Radio. This guy is going to leave his home and stay with a friend in a water front apartment in Cairns which has been built to with stand a Category 5 Cyclone

The cyclone will cross the coast at the same time that there is a high tide, so they are warning that the storm surge could well be higher then predicted.

ADF is on standby ready to begin relief operations as soon as possible. But that probably wont be until Thursday night or Friday morning at the earliest.

The BOM is now saying that this will likely be the worst storm in living memory.
Winds of 320km/h. Stronger then in hurricane Katrina.

From all the morning news programs, you could see the winds have already picked up quite a bit along the coast about to be hit.

And now they are saying that anyone who doesn't evacuate, will be on their own for a period of time until emergency services crews can get out there. They also wont be sending crews out if it means neglecting priority areas/tasks. So in other words, GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN.
There is about an hour left before it's going to be too dangerous, if not less. After that they are saying the winds will be too strong to even drive.

Good luck Queensland.

wikipediaare quick with their updates.

On the 2nd of February 2011, sometime shortly after 08:30 AEST, the eye of Cyclone Yasi moved directly over Willis Island as a Category 5 storm. A wind speed of 185 kilometres per hour was recorded by the weather station prior to a failure of the radar and wind speed equipment.[4] The station staff were evacuated the previous day.[4]

Apparently the four year old $6m cyclone weather station at Willis Island has been taken out by a cyclone

sorry if this has been posted, but i have so many windows open and so many chat forums, im sure my pc will crash soon.

Here is a live stream of the cyclone coming in from Townsville
it is interrupted by short ads occasionally btw.

www.ustream.tv...



Here is another one, these guys are storm chasers.
www.ustream.tv...=synclickback&source=http://www.swxc.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9:c urrent-chase&catid=10:currentchase&Itemid=15&medium=6484768

Originally posted by BLV12
Here is a live stream of the cyclone coming in from Townsville
it is interrupted by short ads occasionally btw.

www.ustream.tv...

edit on 1-2-2011 by BLV12 because: (no reason given)

Here is another one, these guys are storm chasers.
www.ustream.tv...=synclickback&source=http://www.swxc.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9:c urrent-chase&catid=10:currentchase&Itemid=15&medium=6484768

edit on 1-2-2011 by BLV12 because: (no reason given)

Thank you, this is awesome! Is there a webcam that's faced out to sea? The predicted storm surge is now expected to be 20 feet above the highest high tide ever experienced. Woah!!

Good luck Queenslanders. We know you are a tough bunch of buggers (you keep smashing us in the State of Origin) Us New South Welshmen are thinking of you.

Townsville at 11am local time.

My god, seriously what is left of Australia? Wasn't there just massive flooding and 200, 000 people had to evacuate there homes in part of the country? and now a massive storm on a collision course with the continent.

Australia is this years Haiti. I bet even more bad weather/natural disasters hit Australia after this storm in the coming months. I had a feeling some nation was going to get destroyed this years, I guess Australia is it.

Not sure if this has been posted yet....

Live webcam stream

Also this one...

Another webcam

reply to post by loagun


You don't realise how large Australia is.

The flooding that happened at the start of the year was just south of where this cyclone is about to hit.
It's the same state, Queensland.
It was caused by another, but smaller cyclone.

Authorities are now advising people who didn't evacuate to stay indoors because it's now too dangerous to be outside.


As for more disasters, well they predicted about 6 cyclones this season, Queensland has had 3 so far, WA 1.
There are also bush fires in NSW and Victoria as I type.

How Cyclone Yasi compares around the world

Maps show Yasi is continental in size

If you're struggling to grasp the magnitude of Tropical Cyclone Yasi, consider this: it is so large it would almost cover the United States, most of Asia and large parts of Europe.
Most of the coverage about the scale of Yasi has tried to compare it with storms of the past - it's bigger than Larry, more powerful than Tracy.
But just as powerful is this comparison, showing this storm is continental in size. The main bloc of the cyclone is 500km wide, while its associated activity, shown above in a colour-coding to match intensity, stretches over 2000km.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1f606d6d82b8.jpg[/atsimg]

Amazing comparison pictures from around the world.