Cyclone Yasi - An event to remember....

Blogging is a way to remember - Cyclone Yasi is one of those events that we will always remember - as I will be printing out this blog one day and it will pass on to Olivia - this will be in the blog book for her to look back at!

It is our prayer that God will be with all those affected and preserve lifes! All is in His Hands!

The following I got off the internet.....

Cyclone Yasi

Category: Five

Landfall: Expected to hit Cairns at 10pm on Wednesday 2nd February 2011

Size: 500km wide

Eye: 100km

Wind gusts: Expected to reach 320km/h

Storm surge: Predicted at 4m

Damage bill: Unknown

Lives lost: 0

The people of north Queensland have awaited the arrival of Tropical Cyclone Yasi, which hit about midnight (AEST) Thursday 2 February 2011.

Winds of 290km/h are following the Category 5 cyclone which will hit the coast just south of Innisfail.

Yasi was upgraded to category five off north Queensland this morning as the weather bureau warned it was likely to be "more life-threatening" than any storm seen in Australia in living memory.

The weather bureau says Cyclone Yasi is a large and very powerful tropical cyclone and poses an "extremely serious threat" to life and property within the warning area, especially between Port Douglas and Townsville.

Premier Anna Bligh says Cyclone Yasi is "the most severe, the most catastrophic storm to ever hit our coast."

"Frankly I don't think Australia has ever seen a storm of this intensity in an area as populated as this stretch of our coast," Premier Bligh added.

"Whether it's cyclonic devastating winds, storm surge, or torrential rain further west as a result of this, we are facing an extreme event that will not be over in 24 hours, but will possibly take several days before the full flooding effect is felt across the region as well as, potentially, right through to Mount Isa," she said.

"We are facing a storm of catastrophic proportions in a highly populated area. You've heard all of the statistics and what it all adds up to is a very, very frightening time for people and their families.

"This is not something that passes over the coast and is over in an hour.

"This is 24 hours of quite terrifying winds, anywhere up to 300 kilometres per hour, torrential rain, likely loss of electricity and mobile communications, so people really need to be preparing themselves mentally as much as anything else."

We are listening to the updates on the TV and keeping up with the updates from friends in Cairns on facebook! Most have lost power now but are still able to update facebook via mobile.