Tropical Cyclone Yasi the morning before

I woke up with the news that Yasi is now upgraded to a category 5 cyclone. Been following all updates, chats, facebook, twitter and other news for a while and it's unbelievable. A monster. I am located about 1300 kilometers south of Cairns, on the map just under Fraser Island, that little lip on the map.

I am awed by the posts of people that have prepared as well as they can and they were wondering how nice and quiet the weather was yesterday, knowing their surrounds will be so different looking after tomorrow. Some people took videos and photo's of their streets. Some are worrying about their car and tossing to park it under cover but at 2 meters above current sea level, or out in the open and higher up.... Either way, they know. That car will be gone... It makes me shiver all over.

A friend is in Mission Beach, about 90 meters above sea-level and she is going to stay at home she said. During Cyclone Larry she hid in the cupboard and was very scared. I wish and really hope she will be evacuated... This one is BIG.

I saw a blog of a dutch girl at Cairns. She had just arrived, seems quite young and didn't quite understand what was going on. She is in a hostel on the esplanade in Cairns. I so hope she gets out of there.

Emergency services, governments and army are doing a great job. Patients from Hospital Cairns were evacuated to Brisbane (1500 km south!) by Hercules yesterday and this morning.

The roads in that area will be closed from about 11 am this morning (it's about 8 am now) because the winds are forecast to get to over 100 km/h from then. With Yasi being a cat 5 now, winds could get up to 295 km/h. Even a pencil or a clothes peg could kill a person in those winds...

Again, yes. People are starting to panic in their own australian way. With a sense of humour. Unbelievable. This is going to be bad...