And now the wait begins...

We're staying put here. Everything from outside is inside. Am very very glad not to live further south.

On the plus side...when Yasi has past we're much tidier than before :)

Man, I so need to get to some snowfields.

too true, I'd love to live somewhere cold and complain about the winters.

And here's a cam in Cairns: http://www.justin.tv/cycloneyasi#/w/821496752

Damn Willis Island Radar is off air.

Radar service is currently unavailable due to:
Sorry outage information is currently unavailable.

Perhaps it's been shut down to prevent damage, or Yasi has wiped it out.

Cyclone killed it.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/02/3127757.htm

Considering Willis Island is a rather small island ... I'd be leaving a in hurry from there

This is the latest tracking map at 2pm.
Poor old Innisfail it's the cyclone magnet of the north :(

Theres only a crew of 4 on Willis Island who were well gone before Yasi came through.

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@rofloorsander - I knew you'd turn up whinging that you weren't here to enjoy it all :P :P :P

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It's hard to even know what to compare it to, Katrina perhaps but even that did not have this large a storm front.

Having been through Tracey I would not be sticking around for this one, I hope all the Queenslanders stay safe, and if it hits head on do not go out in the eye, the winds pick up again incredibly quickly, damned dangerous to be out even in the still.

Cheers

Darwin got lucky when Cyclone Monica popped up
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Monica

She is huge too.

they reckon if a storm of this size hit the asian continent, billions of people would be displaced.

Yeah bud it sucks that I got to live it vicariously through streams.

Just heard on the news its comparable to Tracey - sounds hair raising.

If I'm not mistaken, Tracey was a category 4 cyclone. This one is the highest category - 5.

Tracey was declared cat 4 only because the equipment got destroyed first. Could have been Cat 5.

Yeah, Tracey was always rated a category 4, it was hard to know, all the wind speed measuring equipment was destroyed when it struck. But Tracey was also a much smaller storm front, this is a monster, and more powerful.

Cheers

Hmm, for some reason I actually thought it was a 5, mebbe I should have googled first lol.

Tracey was nuts- it was like a Class 4 packed into a tiny sphere.

She sure was. She was going to WA then turned 90 degrees to Darwin get to the pub ...

Pretty sure we just lost a Townsville radar as well...

Townsville radar still up. Hope my mates there are ok. http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR211.loop.shtml#skip

Reason I say that, the Willis Island radar was acting the same. Notice how the latest updates the data just disappears?

Not sure though :)

Yeah know what you mean - but when the radar is out, it will show like this http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR413.loop.shtml#skip our radar goes out all the bloody time, I know what it looks like.

That was the problem with Tracey, very small and just steered itself right through the town.

TV news just said Townsville is already experiencing equivalent of category 3 winds.

That's just plain scary at this stage.

Cheers

Don't know which airline, but just heard from someone with friends in Cairns who tried to get a flight interstate to evacuate and the flights were $2000 each including children's prices (don't quote me on that - it could be just heresay)

It wouldn't surprise me Dev, be lucky if they can fly at all soon, bit disgusting if its true though.

Cheers

Don't think I'd like to be in the air anywhere around here just at the mo...

from the way you describe the communication, it is hearsay :)

For up-to-date info on what's going on, there is a constant feed from the ABC : http://www.abc.net.au/farnorth/emergencies/

Thanks SS :)

Did you mean "hearsay" or "heresy"?

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/caillins13

Doesn't look Cat 3 to me.

Go to the QANTAS web site and try to book a flight from Townsville to Brissy. There are some flights around $1000.

Doh - typo lol HEARsay.

Religion is to blame for this atrocious mess. Science is wreaking its terrible vengeance upon the land.

Repent.

Hmm,

Looked pretty damn blowy on the CH7 live feed about 40 odd minutes ago andn worse just this minute.

Cheers

Ok it's too late to flee now
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02...?section=justin

Now it looks like it's tracking closer to Innisfail again.

Little gustier here and only a light rain so far....

Cairns is starting to get pretty blowy. Not much rain yet.

Latest BOM update looks a bit scary. http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDQ65002.shtml

Go away nasty cyclone!

definately getting more regular gusts coming through now,palms are bending like beckham..

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I like this radar too http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR192.loop.shtml#skip

On the news they were comparing Tracy, Katrina and Yasi.

Tracy(Cat 4) was 100km across, Katrina(Cat 5) was 400km across and Yasi(Cat 5) is estimated at 650km across.

Latest from the BOM is it's tracking across the coast between Innisfail & Cardwell...

Innisfail ... de ja vu to 2006 and Cyclone larry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Larry

Its way bigger than Larry.

Yeah, but I bet he didn't curve so well ! :)

At edmonton which is a southern suburb of cairns, starting to get fairly breezy with plenty more rain. Till about an hour ago i thought we'd lucked out :-)

Be interested to see 6pm's map, I think it moved a bit north looking at the 5pm one.

Yep definitely heading north a bit now...

Poor, poor Innisfail.

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