Cyclone Yasi

[Rum]

I have a lot of sympathy having lived through a dozen or more typhoons whilst living in Hong Kong (and a tree coming through the roof of our bungalow on one occasion!), so good luck to any of our members who might be affected!

[kiki5711]

Jesus shitting christ, Durro posted this over at RatSkep. Look at this motherfucker superimposed on the continental U.S.



The eye is 80 km across. Makes Katrina look like a thunderstorm.

I hope all y'all are battened down or evacuated, this is going to be a hell of a rough ride.

DAMN!!!!!

[Ronja]

Please, fellow Aussie Ratz, keep us posted - if one of you hears from another, do slip us a line, if possible. Or send a text message to some out-of-danger Rat, who can then relay the info.

Same goes for the Ratz in North America who are affected by the ice storm.

We care, so we worry. Best of luck to you all!

[redunderthebed]

Its about an hour until the cyclone reaches land.

[laklak]

It appears to be more compact than Katrina, but with higher winds and expected to dump from 3 to 4 times as much rain.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/infographics ... arison.htm

[Hermit]

Live coverage streamed on the internet by the ABC radio network.

Onya, auntie.

[redunderthebed]

watching ABC news 24 hope everyone up there is okay.

[Faithfree]

The eye wall is hitting mission beach, or anything left of it, as I type. Good luck to our northern residents.

[Faithfree]

The eye wall is hitting mission beach, or anything left of it, as I type. Good luck to our northern residents.

yasi.jpg (79.83 KiB) Viewed 574 times

[Ronja]

Holy shit! How far inland can that thing force its way before it blows itself out? It looks big enough to reach Uluru, FFS.

(scurrying to find path prediction maps)

[Faithfree]

Holy shit! How far inland can that thing force its way before it blows itself out? It looks big enough to reach Uluru, FFS.

(scurrying to find path prediction maps)

Path prediction here: http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDQ65002.shtml

From what I've read destructive winds should extend for up to 450 km inland, and it will drop heaps of rain well beyond.

[Feck]

Townsville eh, well The targeting is spot on ..

[Random Mutant]

Dawn is breaking in Aus. Yasi now a Cat 3 as it moves inland. No reported fatalities at this stage. Winds got to 285 kph, storm surge not as high as predicted. Roofs lifted, awnings ripped off, just seen on TV one house demolished.

Luckily Australia is a 1st-world country with good infrastructure, building codes and communication channels. Sometimes I think the USA (Katrina) is less developed than us downunder.

<rant>

I hope it does miss NZ as the forecasts predict, otherwise we'd be absolutely obliterated...

Hope it misses NZ? Do you really think the forecasters would be so wrong that a storm over 3000 km north-west of us and travelling at 40kph WSW towards inland Australia has a snowflake's chance in hell of backing 90 degrees and making landfall over here?

I mean there is a chance that we'll get an ex-tropical low later this month but that's a different story. Also, NZ is another country with decent building codes (witness the 7.2 Canterbury earthquake, no loss of life, cf Haiti) so obliteration is not really on the cards. Cyclone Bola was a Cat 4 at its peak but again was a tropical low when it passed over NZ.

Are you sure you're using the right website? This one is called Rationalia.

</rant>

[JimC]

From radio reports I have heard, lots of houses with roofs off (particularly in Tully), very heavy rain, but the overall damage less than feared, partly because the storm surge along the beachside areas was not as high as expected.

[drl2]

Jesus shitting christ, Durro posted this over at RatSkep. Look at this motherfucker superimposed on the continental U.S.



The eye is 80 km across. Makes Katrina look like a thunderstorm.

I hope all y'all are battened down or evacuated, this is going to be a hell of a rough ride.

This is the storm that was pounding most of North America yesterday:

(Link to full size)