TC Bianca & Anthony

[ozwood]

Good luck guy's, hold tight , Bathtub and matress time soon !!!!

[liam_fnq]

Alan, how low are you? Storm surge is more severe south of the eye because the wind spins clockwise. I'm hoping Cairns will not get smashed really bad by storm surge (been wrong before). That said my street (not where I am now) is on the recommended evacuation list because of storm surge. My place is over 2kms from the water. fingers, toes and more crossed.

[Allen]

The wind is really picking up now. Has happened in the last 5 minutes and is getting really gusty. Hear the patio roof flexing under the strain. I really will be surprised if it's there tomorrow.

[ozziebluesman]

G'day Liam,

We are at the foot of Mt Stuart and not a flood area. In saying that it is pretty hard to avoid flood if we get 700 ml of rain in a hurry. We have had big rains here at our home before and no flood.

We have bunkerd in and setup in the bathroom as a last resort. It is swirling rain here and very dark.

They are predicting cat 3 winds and a 3 mtr storm surge.

Look after yourself up there mate. Best wishes from Kerry and I

Cheers

Alan

[Allen]

Take care Alan and Kerry and you too Liam. I guess Jacinta is in the Councils bunker?

Hope we can log on or call around in the morning.

[Rod True]

My goodness guys. This seems unbelievable to a Canuck like me.

God be with you all!

[liam_fnq]

Big wind gusts have started here now. When I hear the sound a pug makes when it hits the paling fence I'll bring the dogs in.

Alan, hunker down. Allen, bugger the patio roof. I'm sure the main roof will be ok. It's a modern cyclone rated roof. Jacinta is in the council storm bunker. Its cat 5 rated.

Rod, I'll sleep better tonight than I would in a Canadian camp ground. At least the storm won't eat me.

Updates coming as long as the power/internet holds out. Don't panic if you don't hear from any of us for a few days. Alan and Allen and I know that North QLD loses power and phones in an afternoon summer shower.

[Allen]

Just had a peek out the front. Some bloody big gusts and birds getting tossed across the sky trying desperately to find somewhere safe to roost. Tearing foliage off trees and its raining down everywhere.

5 hours before land fall.

[ozziebluesman]

I reckon this will be the last post or a while. The power has flicked a few times and it's becoming very fearce out side.

Signing off for a short while.

Good luck Allen, Karen, Liam and Jacinta.

Cheers

Alan

[Stu]

I can't imagine having to sit something like this out. bloody scary stuff.

Stay safe everyone.

[Allen]

I just stepped outside to see what was happening and it smells of fresh cut lawn. So much greenery being ripped from the trees I guess. Pitch black out now, so can't see what else is happening but the front door was a struggle to shut.

[ozziebluesman]

Sideway rain here! The wind has stepped up quite a bit in the past hour and a half. Not outrageos conditions yet! I'm surprised the power is still holding out.

I will report back after if possible.

Cheers

Alan

[Kim]

Try drinking beer..... you all seen how it worked for me with Bianca bearing down (maybe not)

Just looking at the most recent BOM map I guess it must be getting pretty loud in Innisfail, Cardwell and Ingham about now....poor bastards.



Cheers

Kim

[John Maddison]

True Aussie Spirit in the face of adversity brought on by Tropical Cyclone Yasi ...

yasi.jpg (29.45 KiB) Viewed 18298 times

[Kim]

[John Maddison]

For TV media coverage go to ABC News 24's Cylcone Yasi Live website.

Twitter account is at #tcyasi

[Dennis Leahy]

My heart is with all of you in the path. I would like to have heard that you evacuated, so that we could just lament the loss of "stuff", but I see that you've decided to hunker down and ride it out. Sending positive vibes that you'll all be safe!

Dennis

[Allen]

I just had a walk around my yard at 5:30am. Still pitch black out and theres just a bit of a stiff breeze. Initial inspection looks like we've been incredibly lucky. The weather vain on top of my shed is missing 1/2 of the blades from what I can see, and the gardens have taken a bit of a battering.

Don't know much more than that at this point. Will have a day of cleaning up and putting things back in place but that's a small price to pay for what looks like being spared from the brunt of Yasi.

[Bob Connor]

Great to hear you are OK Al.

[jeffhigh]

Good to hear you are safe Allen

[Clancy]

Got up early to check in on you all.
Glad to know your OK mate - and you've got power!
How was the ride?

[Nick]

That's great to hear Allen, been trying to follow events as much & as soon as possible, hope Alan & Liam check in safe & sound as well now. Sounds like the ones directly on the 'flight' path weren't quite so lucky Hopefully no loss of life though.

[kiwigeo]

Good to hear youre ok Allen.

[Kim]

Great news to hear your OK Al, hoping the same for Liam and Alan and families. Looks like Yasi took a path that split right between Cairns and Townsville although it sounds like Townsville received a severe lashing. Poor people of Mission Beach, Tulley, Cardwell, Ingham and Innisfail, it looks like they were really hit hard.

[Allen]

I helped my neighbour fish his back fence out of his pool this morning. We did a quick clean up around the yard. Stripped a lot of leaf matter off of the trees around us and it's piled up in any and every lee created by building and fence. Still squally rain about and a light breeze.

I took a drive into town to drop my mate and family off at their home and drive by my work. Lots of fences and trees down everywhere. Power out to a large swath of town and traffic lights out. Good thing that there is very little traffic about. I couldn't see much in the way of damage to any buildings though. So it looks like Cairns faired incredibly well this time around. Road and power crews are going to have a job ahead of them though. The main roads from the south of Cairns into the city are down to one lane with all of the trees down and you have to dodge back and forth to avoid branches etc. I'm thinking that many people will be attempting to go back to work tomorrow, but it's not going to be a fun commute.