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The north Queensland town of Tully is a scene of mass devastation with roofs torn from houses and power poles knocked over by the powerful category 5 Cyclone Yasi.
Yasi crossed the North Queensland coast near Mission Beach, north of Tully, at midnight (AEST), bringing with it dangerous storms and battering waves to the south of the massive storm's centre.
Cassowary Coast councillor Ross Sorbello said the roof had been torn from his mother's house in Tully, where he was waiting out the storm, and local properties had suffered similar damage.
"We are talking about a pretty strong brick house that was built in the 70s, so god help us in the morning when we look at some of the older places," he said.
Mr Sorbello ventured outside briefly during the eye of the storm to assess the damage and said the streets were strewn with debris while power poles had been knocked over.
"It is just a scene of mass devastation," he said.
"(Cyclone) Larry was a boy compared to this."
At midnight (AEST) Yasi was estimated to be 120 kilometres south southeast of Cairns and 50 kilometres southeast of Innisfail and moving west southwest at 27 kilometres per hour.
The Bureau of Meteorology in its midnight update reported that Yasi would continue to move inland in a
west-southwesterly direction towards the Georgetown area during the morning.
The bureau is warning of an "extremely dangerous" rise in sea levels between Innisfail and Ayr, peaking between Mission Beach and Lucinda.
Send your photos or video to [email protected] or MMS 0414 284 637
So far Lucinda, to the south of the eye, is seeing the worst of the winds, with gusts to 185km/h, but the worst is still to come.
Cyclone Yasi is expected to hit between Innisfail and Cardwell.
Yasi also hit the town of Tully with full force, with locals already saying the storm is worse than Cyclone Larry which devastated the region in 2006.
Cassowary Coast councillor Ross Sorbello said: "We're already at a stage where it's worse than it was during Larry. I don't remember the house shaking like that last time."
At Innisfail, the windows of an evacuation centre were flexing under the cyclone's violent winds as water flooded in under doors.
Correspondent Duncan Paterson said people were frantically hammering wooden boards onto the bottom of doors to stop water gushing in.
In Townsville, sheets of roof iron have been ripped from a shopping centre with locals having reproted seeing metal awnings flying down the street.
Townsville resident Stewart Mclean said he saw two sheets of roof iron being torn from the top of the Urban Quarter shopping centre in the city's CBD.
"They came off quite early, it got quite hairy there for a while," he said.
By 10.30pm last night, almost 90,000 homes were without power in north Queensland, including the entire Townsville CBD.
Speaking at her final press conference last night, Premier Anna Bligh said evacuation centres were among those buildings to lose power.
Winds pick up at the Townsville Strand. Photo: James Woodford
She warned the situation was likely to worsen.
"Our power transmitters have been built to withstand cyclones however ... they've never been tested at this level before," she said.
Ms Bligh said some coastal areas had already received their highest tide of the year, but worse storm surges were yet to come.
She warned people not to leave their homes until advised otherwise and told them to sit tight as emergency services were currently powerless to act.
"We will do everything in our power to minimise the time people are without assistance but that is not within our control," Premier Bligh said.
"I can't sugarcoat this for people. It's going to be a very tough 24 hours and for many peo[le it could be a very tough couple of days."
Menwhile, Townsville authorities say there is no way of knowing how many homes have been inundated by the cyclone's storm surge.
Thousands of residents were evacuated from low lying suburbs in preparation for Yasi's arrival but Premier Anna Bligh warned the storm surge could be worse than expected.
A wave height of 9.5 metres had been recorded at the city, almost three metres above the expected level, but authorities will not be able to determine the effects of the storm surge until after the cyclone has passed.
Cyclone Yasi was also smashing the town of Innisfail but authorities have no way of knowing the extent of the damage caused so far.
Cassowary Coast Mayor Bill Shannon said the category 5 cyclone was hitting the town, which was virtually destroyed by Cyclone Larry in 2006, very hard.
"The cyclone is very much upon us, the wind is getting pretty fast and the rain is getting heavier by the minute," he said.
"It's just a matter of getting through the next few hours to the eye and then another few hours after that."
Emergency authorities have found crisis accommodation for residents who were this afternoon temporarily turned away from evacuation centres in Cairns, according to a spokesman for Mayor Val Shier.
“We had buses to take them to evacuation centres where there was spare capacity,” he said.
“There was also spillover centres opened so that everybody who turned up to a centre has been accommodated.”
Some of these spillover centres are school halls and the spokesman said everybody was now inside a shelter.
“It is not safe to drive anywhere. It is not safe to go outside. Wherever you are now, you should shelter there for the next 24 hours,” he said.
People seeking refuge from the effects of Yasi were earlier turned away at the entrance to jammed evacuation shelters as the monster storm bore down on north Queensland.
Authorities have recorded wind speeds of 295km/h and warned that storm surges of up to 7 metres could hit Cardwell, between Townsville and Cairns, as the cyclone’s expected arrival late tonight combines with a high tide.
Cairns residents were told around lunch time that all seven of the city’s cyclone shelters were full and people should stay where they were and batten down.
Scores of people were seen this afternoon waiting wait in the open outside evacuation centres, hoping and praying police would relent and squeeze them in before the storm’s arrival.
At a shopping centre which serves as a shelter in Cairns, Selwyn Hughes stood with his family in the uncovered carpark and said his only comfort for the moment was in numbers.
“There are so many of us here. Surely they have to do something, find somewhere safer to move us to before it arrives,” he said, squatting on a pink suitcase with his five children, aged two to 13.
The family’s only possessions were a small box of food, including a tin of powdered milk, and clothes and a pram for two-year-old daughter Minoota.
Around them, 80 others sat on the ground and shared advice or sympathy.
At a steel barrier gate, four police guarded entry to a ramp up to a cinema complex being used as a rooftop entry point to the makeshift cyclone shelter, as grey clouds swirled and winds whistled over fences and rooftops.
"It's making it very difficult. We're disappointed we can't take any more people in, but I've been through in there and it's just not safe," said acting police inspector John Bosnjak.
Inside, more than 2000 people lay in front of shuttered shops and food courts, or sat on empty tables, while children played on moving walkways.
Around 30,000 people in low-lying suburbs evacuated their homes and many poured into the centres when doors opened early this morning, or bunkered down in the homes of friends at the urging of the government, helping ease the strain on shelters.
Others joined a stream of traffic heading south.
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said this afternoon 10,680 people were now sheltering in evacuation centres.
She said 4000 people had also registered their locations with authorities, allowing relatives and friends to be reassured about their whereabouts and safety.
Wind gusts nearly 300km/h
At 2pm, Ms Bligh said wind gusts were being recorded at 290km/h.
Ms Bligh said the bureau continued to hold grave concerns about the strength of the system for some time after it crossed the coast.
Inland towns will be hit today, with Cyclone Yasi expected to remain at a category-three intensity when it arrives at Georgetown, 450km west of Cairns, at 7am.
Click here for full Cyclone Yasi coverage
Residents must take precautions
State disaster co-ordinator Ian Stewart said those sheltering in their homes should take care. He said residents who took precautions as requested would reduce their risk of injury or death.
Mr Stewart urged people to look after their families and neighbours, saying emergency workers would also have to stay in positions of safety until weather conditions abated.
He said a judgment would have to be made about whether to respond to triple-zero calls reporting life-threatening emergencies during the cyclone, as emergency workers would also be putting their lives at risk.
“People have to understand that at some point it becomes too dangerous to be out and about,” Mr Stewart said.
Huge storm surge
Mr Stewart said Cardwell could experience a storm surge of 6.5 to 7 metres above the normal high tide, and lives were at stake.
As a result, waves as high as 12m are predicted to hit the north Queensland coast putting tens of thousands of oceanfront and low-lying homes in Cairns and Townsville at risk of inundation.
Weather Channel meteorologist Tom Saunders said a storm surge was caused by winds at the centre of the cyclone pushing the ocean on to coastline, while the low pressure in the atmosphere caused the sea level to rise.
"It's not like a tsunami, it's not like one massive wave, it will just gradually rise up as the cyclone approaches and on top of that you will have huge waves because the swell is so big," he said.
Category five
Earlier today, Cyclone Yasi was upgraded to a category five cyclone, surpassing the size and destructive intensity of cyclones Larry and Tracy.
“Severe Tropical 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 Cairns and Townsville,” the Bureau of Meteorology said this afternoon.
with AAP and Reuters
Affected residents can register with authorities and concerned friends or relatives can make enquiries on 1300 993 191; international callers phone +61 7 3055 6220.
Cyclone Yasi: Category Five Cyclone | Yasi crosses coast
Yasi crossed the North Queensland coast near Mission Beach, north of Tully, at midnight (AEST), bringing with it dangerous storms and battering waves to the south of the massive storm's centre.
Cassowary Coast councillor Ross Sorbello said the roof had been torn from his mother's house in Tully, where he was waiting out the storm, and local properties had suffered similar damage.
"We are talking about a pretty strong brick house that was built in the 70s, so god help us in the morning when we look at some of the older places," he said.
Mr Sorbello ventured outside briefly during the eye of the storm to assess the damage and said the streets were strewn with debris while power poles had been knocked over.
"It is just a scene of mass devastation," he said.
"(Cyclone) Larry was a boy compared to this."
At midnight (AEST) Yasi was estimated to be 120 kilometres south southeast of Cairns and 50 kilometres southeast of Innisfail and moving west southwest at 27 kilometres per hour.
Cyclone Yasi smashes into North Queensland at midnight (AEST). Photo: US National Oceanic and Atmosphe
The Bureau of Meteorology in its midnight update reported that Yasi would continue to move inland in a
west-southwesterly direction towards the Georgetown area during the morning.
The bureau is warning of an "extremely dangerous" rise in sea levels between Innisfail and Ayr, peaking between Mission Beach and Lucinda.
Send your photos or video to [email protected] or MMS 0414 284 637
So far Lucinda, to the south of the eye, is seeing the worst of the winds, with gusts to 185km/h, but the worst is still to come.
Cyclone Yasi is expected to hit between Innisfail and Cardwell.
Yasi also hit the town of Tully with full force, with locals already saying the storm is worse than Cyclone Larry which devastated the region in 2006.
Cassowary Coast councillor Ross Sorbello said: "We're already at a stage where it's worse than it was during Larry. I don't remember the house shaking like that last time."
At Innisfail, the windows of an evacuation centre were flexing under the cyclone's violent winds as water flooded in under doors.
Correspondent Duncan Paterson said people were frantically hammering wooden boards onto the bottom of doors to stop water gushing in.
In Townsville, sheets of roof iron have been ripped from a shopping centre with locals having reproted seeing metal awnings flying down the street.
Townsville resident Stewart Mclean said he saw two sheets of roof iron being torn from the top of the Urban Quarter shopping centre in the city's CBD.
"They came off quite early, it got quite hairy there for a while," he said.
By 10.30pm last night, almost 90,000 homes were without power in north Queensland, including the entire Townsville CBD.
Speaking at her final press conference last night, Premier Anna Bligh said evacuation centres were among those buildings to lose power.
Winds pick up at the Townsville Strand. Photo: James Woodford
She warned the situation was likely to worsen.
"Our power transmitters have been built to withstand cyclones however ... they've never been tested at this level before," she said.
Ms Bligh said some coastal areas had already received their highest tide of the year, but worse storm surges were yet to come.
She warned people not to leave their homes until advised otherwise and told them to sit tight as emergency services were currently powerless to act.
"We will do everything in our power to minimise the time people are without assistance but that is not within our control," Premier Bligh said.
"I can't sugarcoat this for people. It's going to be a very tough 24 hours and for many peo[le it could be a very tough couple of days."
Menwhile, Townsville authorities say there is no way of knowing how many homes have been inundated by the cyclone's storm surge.
Thousands of residents were evacuated from low lying suburbs in preparation for Yasi's arrival but Premier Anna Bligh warned the storm surge could be worse than expected.
A wave height of 9.5 metres had been recorded at the city, almost three metres above the expected level, but authorities will not be able to determine the effects of the storm surge until after the cyclone has passed.
Cyclone Yasi was also smashing the town of Innisfail but authorities have no way of knowing the extent of the damage caused so far.
Cassowary Coast Mayor Bill Shannon said the category 5 cyclone was hitting the town, which was virtually destroyed by Cyclone Larry in 2006, very hard.
"The cyclone is very much upon us, the wind is getting pretty fast and the rain is getting heavier by the minute," he said.
"It's just a matter of getting through the next few hours to the eye and then another few hours after that."
Emergency authorities have found crisis accommodation for residents who were this afternoon temporarily turned away from evacuation centres in Cairns, according to a spokesman for Mayor Val Shier.
“We had buses to take them to evacuation centres where there was spare capacity,” he said.
“There was also spillover centres opened so that everybody who turned up to a centre has been accommodated.”
Some of these spillover centres are school halls and the spokesman said everybody was now inside a shelter.
“It is not safe to drive anywhere. It is not safe to go outside. Wherever you are now, you should shelter there for the next 24 hours,” he said.
People seeking refuge from the effects of Yasi were earlier turned away at the entrance to jammed evacuation shelters as the monster storm bore down on north Queensland.
Authorities have recorded wind speeds of 295km/h and warned that storm surges of up to 7 metres could hit Cardwell, between Townsville and Cairns, as the cyclone’s expected arrival late tonight combines with a high tide.
Cairns residents were told around lunch time that all seven of the city’s cyclone shelters were full and people should stay where they were and batten down.
Scores of people were seen this afternoon waiting wait in the open outside evacuation centres, hoping and praying police would relent and squeeze them in before the storm’s arrival.
At a shopping centre which serves as a shelter in Cairns, Selwyn Hughes stood with his family in the uncovered carpark and said his only comfort for the moment was in numbers.
“There are so many of us here. Surely they have to do something, find somewhere safer to move us to before it arrives,” he said, squatting on a pink suitcase with his five children, aged two to 13.
The family’s only possessions were a small box of food, including a tin of powdered milk, and clothes and a pram for two-year-old daughter Minoota.
Around them, 80 others sat on the ground and shared advice or sympathy.
At a steel barrier gate, four police guarded entry to a ramp up to a cinema complex being used as a rooftop entry point to the makeshift cyclone shelter, as grey clouds swirled and winds whistled over fences and rooftops.
"It's making it very difficult. We're disappointed we can't take any more people in, but I've been through in there and it's just not safe," said acting police inspector John Bosnjak.
Inside, more than 2000 people lay in front of shuttered shops and food courts, or sat on empty tables, while children played on moving walkways.
Around 30,000 people in low-lying suburbs evacuated their homes and many poured into the centres when doors opened early this morning, or bunkered down in the homes of friends at the urging of the government, helping ease the strain on shelters.
Others joined a stream of traffic heading south.
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said this afternoon 10,680 people were now sheltering in evacuation centres.
She said 4000 people had also registered their locations with authorities, allowing relatives and friends to be reassured about their whereabouts and safety.
Wind gusts nearly 300km/h
At 2pm, Ms Bligh said wind gusts were being recorded at 290km/h.
Ms Bligh said the bureau continued to hold grave concerns about the strength of the system for some time after it crossed the coast.
Inland towns will be hit today, with Cyclone Yasi expected to remain at a category-three intensity when it arrives at Georgetown, 450km west of Cairns, at 7am.
Click here for full Cyclone Yasi coverage
Residents must take precautions
State disaster co-ordinator Ian Stewart said those sheltering in their homes should take care. He said residents who took precautions as requested would reduce their risk of injury or death.
Mr Stewart urged people to look after their families and neighbours, saying emergency workers would also have to stay in positions of safety until weather conditions abated.
He said a judgment would have to be made about whether to respond to triple-zero calls reporting life-threatening emergencies during the cyclone, as emergency workers would also be putting their lives at risk.
“People have to understand that at some point it becomes too dangerous to be out and about,” Mr Stewart said.
Huge storm surge
Mr Stewart said Cardwell could experience a storm surge of 6.5 to 7 metres above the normal high tide, and lives were at stake.
As a result, waves as high as 12m are predicted to hit the north Queensland coast putting tens of thousands of oceanfront and low-lying homes in Cairns and Townsville at risk of inundation.
Weather Channel meteorologist Tom Saunders said a storm surge was caused by winds at the centre of the cyclone pushing the ocean on to coastline, while the low pressure in the atmosphere caused the sea level to rise.
"It's not like a tsunami, it's not like one massive wave, it will just gradually rise up as the cyclone approaches and on top of that you will have huge waves because the swell is so big," he said.
Category five
Earlier today, Cyclone Yasi was upgraded to a category five cyclone, surpassing the size and destructive intensity of cyclones Larry and Tracy.
“Severe Tropical 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 Cairns and Townsville,” the Bureau of Meteorology said this afternoon.
with AAP and Reuters
Affected residents can register with authorities and concerned friends or relatives can make enquiries on 1300 993 191; international callers phone +61 7 3055 6220.
Cyclone Yasi: Category Five Cyclone | Yasi crosses coast
