This big MF cyclone is heading this way.
Normally I'm not that sceamish but this one is epic!

So far predictions go winds up to 260km/h (yes faster than the SD), rain up to 500mm an hour and the size of the eye could take up to an hour to pass over. Total predicted size up to 600km accross. Have a look at the sat pictures you can't miss it!

http://www.bom.gov.au/gms/IDE00035.latest.shtml

Managed to get an early flight out tomorrow to Melbourne, go and visit some relatives.
Everybody is on a state of Panic. Flights out are full, heaps of cars going inland and places close to low areas are geting evacuated.

This thing is big, anyone living where it could hit, I hope you're prepared and wish you all the best!

Get out while you can

Hmm it is looking rather big isn't it. I should be safe down here, but will still likely get a bunch of wet as a result.

Good luck to any that are in that area.

Who or what have you guys pissed off to bring such nasty weather up there?
Drought, floods, cane toads and now hurricanes!

One of the things I miss is being home in the afternoon when a big storm is brewing. Grabbing a chair and some drinks and watch it roll in.

This is not one that you want to watch rolling in.

This one could wipe out North Queensland.

Hope you lot has a spare bed free as If the plane doesn't leave here in the morning I'm driving the car to Brissie.

Shit you guys have had you share of bad weather of late As if the floods have not being bad enough now FNQ has to deal with a cyclone more severe than Tracey.
Hope it passes without causing to much damage.

Just checked out the BOM site and that cyclone looks massive

Hey Guy that is one big mother of a storm coming.
Ive been keeping an eye on that thing on the infared satelite.
I just hope things change and it stay's out at sea.

oh.


fook.



feel for you guys

Thanks James! We might have to take you up on that....

Latest update. It seems the big high down south pushes the cyclone north so it might miss Townsville but it will hit Cairns hard.
We will still have 120km/h winds, shitloads of rain and probably tide surges.

I had a look at our flight and the only one available last night when we booked goes over Cairns. It seems they will lock down the airport at 10 am so our 11.44 flight will not go. Don't want to get stuck in Cairns.....

We have a look at 4 am and go to the airport here (5min drive) to see what happens. I still consider driving down south but so are 1000's of others.
If it is still aimed at Cairns tomorrow morning we might have to ride it out here.

Pretty shitty situation. Typical airline crap too. Just hung on the phone for an hour trying to get trough to the airline to find out the story. They probably have one person on the phone and hundreds of calls. One would expect that they get some extra staff in as this is an emergency.... Dopey cnuts....!

That sucks!

ok... 300+km/h winds catergory 5 cyclone (worst we've ever had)... 500mm/hr rain and a 500km wide storm front.

I feel for anyone living in NQ... if there is anything that I can do to help... eg accomodation, let me know.

NQ will not look like NQ very shortly... what happened in bowen a couple of years ago will be a walk in the park compared to this.

Hopefully this will be an anti climax... I dont want to see more QLD'ers die due to freak weather conditions

Update.
Airport is closed as expected and anyone that wants to get out by plane is stuck.
Driving seems not much of an option as 1000's of people having the same idea and one has to get to Gladstone at least to be 100% save I'd say.
There is also the issue that petrol can run out along the way as most of the places down south have not recovered from the floods yet so some supplies will be short.

Anyway some good news. Never tought I would say this but most of our stuff still sits in NZ including the SD. So thanks useless freighters!
The neighbour is a builder concreter and his place is build like a wwII bunker. He also has generators and fridges. We will be there overnight, big thanks Errol!
Latest forecast says the main front will still be higher up north so Townsville probably will escape the worst.

I'll try a post asap if internet/phones work.

keep your head down mate, heard on the radio on the way home that townsville to port douglas is feeling cyclonic winds and some rain already, it's not supposed to cross land until 10pm! hope you and your family come through this ok.
this isn't normally how we welcome kiwis, ok?

paul.

hold tight dudes

Got relatives in Townsville so keeping an eye on this to,
hope it misses

Hate to hear this, hope you guys get thru the storm OK.

Hope everybody is ok down there, a mates sister is in Cairns right now but I think they had some exit strategies sorted.

been watchin it all day on the news, it seems to have lowered to a category 2, but still hit a few small towns quite hard, hope they are all ok up there. wish them all well..!!

even though I am down in vic, if there is anything I can do please shout out..!! I was 20km's from the fires here a few years back and it was hell, I helped out there too..!! you guys up north just keep getting belted my muther nature..no good, hope you are all getting thru ok.

You picked a great time to move to Townsville, hope everything turns out ok for you KTMGuy. Seems TVL was reasonably spared.

People in Townsville are safe as far as I know and also Cairns escaped the worst. Don't know about Tully and Innisfail as we have no power and so no tv.

It turned out not as bad as predicted and most places in Townsville are OK. Still a potent breeze all right...
Funny was also the lack of rain. Compared what is normal during a cyclone we merely had a mozzie piss.
The timing was right too as it only hit after high tide so not a lot of places had flooding. If it hits at high tide it pushes it up even more and then its a real drama.
Don't know if it is the seize of it that actually stops it from gettig full power or so but not even close to what expected.
Even the satellite dish is still on the roof next door and we watched the TV on it till 11.15 pm and then the power died.
Neighbour also has generator and our fridge is plugged in to that for now.
Power slowly comes back on per suburb depending how many trees and powerlines down.
CBD has power and we should be next as we are on the same grid as the airport and they are priority.

All morning the neighbour and I got out cleaning up with the chainsaw and helping others. Most places still closed coz of the no power and everyone cleaning up.
All by all we had not a bad time, the house where we stayed is solid, good company, everyone had food and drink. One of the people present is a chef so we had excellent food and a few wines. Did the one person keeps watch thing in case of drama and the rest put earplugs in and got to bed.
Might have put on some weight actually....

I think the media are a little disappointed with the result after all the hype. Still alot of damage and no lives lost bar one (running a diesel genny in a closed space). Things could have been far worse. Glad to see all is good with you.