Cyclone Yasi

[Peter B]

Don't know whether it's making the news much over there people, but poor old Queensland is in for another battering up the northern coast, just after widespread flooding covered an area the size of France and Germany combined and is still recovering, as a huge cat 5 monster cyclone, (hurricane in the Americas), considered the largest in recorded memory to hit anywhere in Australia, is about to cross the northern coast about now.* If you google it and look at the weather maps it is twice the size of Tracy which devastated Darwin in 1974, and is even bigger than Katrina, which max'd out at a low cat 5 but max winds of 155 mph = 279 kph.* I know you will join all of us who are safely out of it in thinking of those poor devils who are going to go throught it, particularly fellow boaters who are having to sit and watch probable destruction come down on their treasured vessels, having done all they can, but where can you hide a boat from a monster like that...?* They are expecting 300kph (= 167 mph) wind gusts and a 7 metre (~23 ft) storm surge.* Think about that.
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=cyclone+yasi+radar&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a

-- Edited by Peter B on Wednesday 2nd of February 2011 06:32:15 AM

 

[JohnP]

Yes, Yasi is in the news and your people our in our Thoughts and Hearts!


Climate Change- Global Warming- The weather is Freaky everywhere.

Is this the new Norm?* I hope Not!*** Take Care JohnP

 

[Forkliftt]

Peter B
Yes, it is very much in the news how are you guys faring so far?

 

[Marin]

You need to get Obama to extend FEMA coverage to other countries. Then Carey could come down to Australia and help people get back on their feet after a devatating storm like this.

 

[Peter B]

Actually the eye passed over the coast about midnight last night our time, and freakishly ended up going through the one spot on the coast where the population density is lower, though towns of Tully, Cardwell and Innisfail were again hit hard. They were those struck by Larry in 2005, but as so many houses were wrecked and rebuilt to modern cyclone strength codes, building damage appears to have been much less this time - so the codes worked, and that is one good thing. So far news re the marinas has not come in, so I still hold grave fears for a lot of boats being damaged or sunk. Watch this space......
Re FEMA, Marin, (and Carey), thanks for the thought, but we actually have a very good SES (Special Emergency Services) organisation over here equivalent to FEMA who do an amazing job, and things like that appear to have been handled very well.* Regretably this is such a country of extremes they get a lot of practice.* If it's not cyclones, tornados or floods, it's bushfires.....

-- Edited by Peter B on Wednesday 2nd of February 2011 11:08:05 PM

 

[Tidahapah]

Peter,
Isn't it amazing what the power of a good communication system does.
With the days pre cyclone that people had to prepare,get advice, stock up on esentialt etc and also those in potential flood prone areas told to evaucate there was no loss of life
or serious injury.
The only people I heard about calling for help were some down at Cardwell/Hinchinbrook who had been told to evaucate but didn't and at midnight last night at the height of the cyclone were calling for help. DOH
Hinchinbrook marina copped and absolute bashing apparently.
I have heard that the tide surge put the water 2.5 mts (8 ft) above the tops of the marina piles.
Berths floated off and boats were scattered thru houses and yards around the marina.
Luckily approx 50% of the boats had left the marina in the preceeding couple of days.

A good year not to have left the boat up north.

Thankfully most people are safe but one hell of a lot of damage done to infrastructure, houses and crops.

Queenslanders!!! thank christ we bounce back well.

Benn

 

[Peter B]

Yes Benn, they bounce back.* It is a huge relief there has been no confirmed loss of life, and especially in view of some of the damage, largely thanks to cyclone building codes, good early weather warnings, and more than a bit of luck in terms of exactly where it made landfall.* However it is sad to see the decimation the boating community has endured which realises my worst fears.* Some of these scenes are gut-wrenching.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/yasi/8206048/worry-over-cardwell-residents-who-stayed

 

[Forkliftt]

Peter B
Here is a pic of a marina with story on MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41382991/ns/weather/deck/msn

 

[Peter B]

Yes, that summed it up pretty well, Steve. Actually, although it looks like a giant hand just swept all the boats together as if they were toys, many of them will be salvageable, as they were not sunk, and an intact hull is pretty resilient. I remember one of the things which sold me on my 26 ft trailer yacht, a Gazelle, (3 boats ago) was when the owner showed me a photo of one he had before the one I bought, (he was the manufacturer, and used his boat as the demo), that had been thrown off its trailer when an axle broke. It has slid up a bank, coming to rest against a fence, yet it suffered scratches only.
So for the sake of so many of those boaters, and many other up and down the coast....here's hoping....

 

[Per]

some painful photo from Cardwell marina:

An aerial survey of boats, which are stacked like bath toys on the foreshore, in the area may locate the vessel.

A lot of the vessels broke moorings so we are trying to map out where all the vessels ended up, the spokesman said.

 

[skipperdude]

Aww *Man. That just teare's me up.

*I just can't imagine.

Best of luck to all our brothers and sisters down under.

SD

 

[Tidahapah]

Carl,
That's the amazing thing throughout the whole episode there were no deaths or serious injuries and
numerous small towns were devestated and torn apart but most of the population had secured there homes and gone to
safe centers.

Benn

 

[Egregious]

Been through our share here.* Hope everyone is alive first of all.* This is nothing to take lightly, although some folks do.

 

[Peter B]

Miraculously, only one confirmed death so far, and even that one can be a lesson to us. Sadly, it was a young man whose house weathered the storm well, but he accidentally gassed himself with CO poisoning by running a small diesel generator in too confined a space. What a needless and avoidable tragedy.
Actually, we down here need to spare a thought for your North American people being devastated by those massive snow storms. Many lives have been lost we gather from the news. What a set of weather extremes we are experiencing all over the world.

 

[Nomad Willy]

Peter,
Your weather this summer has been like a war.
What is it going to be like when WINTER comes.

 

[Peter B]

Eric, in some ways winter in Queensland is the best time, for boating and a lot of other stuff. generally it is our dry season, and we seldom get what you would call cold. Typical winter sunny day, 5 -10C overnight up to max in the day of 22 - 25C - you do the math for degrees F, as you say.....

 

[Nomad Willy]

OK Peter we'll be down to see you w the wife, her kids and their kids and a coupla buddies of mine. Got liquor stores down there?

 

[Tidahapah]

Erik,
Liquor stores are the least of you problems. This is Australia.
Don't forget your work clothes as there is plenty of clean up to do from floods to cyclones but interspersed with BBQs and plenty to drink.

Benn