Our thoughts here are with any of you in or near the path of Cyclone Yasi—set to cross the North Queensland coast early Thursday morning—and with folk (like me) who have friends, relatives or loved ones there. At Category Five, it’s stronger (though less intense) than the Category Four Cyclone Tracy that flattened Darwin some decades ago, and very slightly stronger even than the hurricane that hit New Orleans so destructively a couple of years ago.
Let us hope the destruction is less than predicted, and everyone is better protected than we fear.
There is some good news in this however: You’ve now got a ready response to any of your friends or relatives who are always banging on about how good the Queensland weather is.
P.S.: If you know of good websites/sources/places to keep in touch with cyclone news and updates, feel free to post them in the comments.
UPDATE 1:
- Twitter tag for cyclone related news and gossip is #TCYasi
- Satellite animation of Yasi here
- INteractive weather and wave forecast maps here
- Weather warnings summaries here
- CYCLONE HOTLINE - 1300 993 191 - or www.redcross.org.au to register and to find families
- The weather channel tracking Cyclone Yasi here
- Cairns airport updates here
UPDATE 2: Cairns humour:
UPDATE 3: By way of comparison [via Stan Blanch], and note that American and Australian hurricane/cyclone Categories are not exactly commensurate:
UPDATE 4: You can watch the “progress” of Yasi at ABC Australia’s 24-hour news TV, online here.
3 comments:
There is no doubt that we will see some of our illiterate economics experts popping up on TV evening news to say that Cyclone Yasi is good for economic growth therefore we need more natural disasters to happen. They say the more frequent they occur, the better for economic stimulus.
I think everyone in Australia will be thinking and Praying for everyone up in Cairns and Townsville.
Well beautiful boy, I may not be able to send emails but I can comment on your blog..a first!
Am on Thursday Island and the supermarket shelves are close to bare! Folk are buying up large, not a bottle of milk left on the islnd! Big sign outside the bottle shop saying "No grog, cyclone coming!".
The islalnd has its last supply of food today - the next may come in 2 weeks apprarently.
All I can tell you, is that the ground is very warm and its earily quiet.
Look forward to being back in the f.s in New Zealand soon. Claire
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