Spare a thought...

[btaylor]

Hey guys,


Spare a thought for North-East Australia (North Queensland) tonight as the worst cyclone in recent times is due to hit. Cyclone Yasi is predicted to produce 250km/h + winds when it hits the coast. I'm around 1,200km directly West of there and it's still predicted to be a category 2 cyclone when it reaches here. This this is colossal in size, it's hard to imagine. The image below shows cyclone Yasi superimposed over a map of the USA to give you an idea of how big it is.


Time to batten down the hatches people! It's going to be a wild few days. For anyone here that will be affected by this, please stay safe and look after each other. This is a real kick in the guts after we've just been through the worst flooding in the South-East of Queensland since 1974. Mother nature's not happy with us right now.


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Good luck, Ben.

[DavidEccleston]

Wishing all you Aussies good luck with the storm. I read briefly about the recent flooding, with one city, apparently somewhat far from the coast, having sharks swimming down their main road. Somebody down there seriously PO

[ddt0725]

Tonight I am living thru the worst snowstorm I have ever seen in my lifetime of living in SE Wisconsin and as I type this, I can here parts of my roof flying off. The National Guard has been called in and the Governor has declared a state of emergency for my city as well as a few of the small surrounding ones. Many of us here in the US are going thru horrific weather of some sort tonight but it does not come close to the nightmare Australia is facing! My thoughts and prayers are with all of you! As I read the articles on the internet, it literally brings tears to my eyes imagining the fear and devastation all of you areexperiencing!


Praying for your safety ...


Denise

[Steven23]

Oh way, thats freakin huge! Man that sucks really bad, I live in the south west part of Ohio and just go a taste of the winter ice storm, and still coming down at this post. Man i hope everything goes ok for you aussies. 150+ mph winds are gonna suck really bad.

[Sheiky]

Oh way, that's freakin huge!


Say that! Wow! Here in the Netherlands we have trouble when we have 10cm of snow, a river outside it's boundaries etc... That's front page news here[:S] I really cannot imagine something like this to happen[:|]. Good luck to everyone involved. Be safe Ben.You're not going to do extreme photography tonight are you?


Denise, how is it at your place now?

[neuroanatomist]

Here in the Netherlands we have trouble when we have 10cm of snow


We got about 20 cm (8") here in Boston yesterday, bringing us to ~2 meters of snow so far this season...and we've had about 3 days since the snow started that the temperatures edged above freezing, meaning no melting and huge piles of snow everywhere, with nowhere to put it. It's snowing outside right now - I drove into work over ~ 4 cm of snow on the streets. Of course, I'll take the snow over the ice and freezing rain we'll be getting by this afternoon.


Still, that's just a New England winter, and nothing like Queensland is facing right now. Best of luck to everyone affected by this natural disaster!

[btaylor]

Thanks guys. We

[Kayaker72]

Ben,


I just did a search on the cyclone that is about to hit and the lead to the story was your copper mine shutting down. Wow, 300,000 tons a year. I guess I have no reference point other than that is a lot of pennies.


Stay safe, enjoy the beer and snap a few pics if you can.


I say all this sitting at home. Work is a little slow right now, so with this snow storm I figured I

[Sheiky]

Jan - no photography for me tonight. But I'm thinking of chasing a few shots tomorrow night. Will check out the forecast first. If there's going to be 300km/h winds like over east then I might just sit at home with a beer and enjoy the show. No point putting yourself at risk, all your doing then is risking somebody else' life if you need help.


Good idea Ben. I just watched/listened to the 24h ABC News 24 Livefeed for about 45mins and I now have a bit of an idea of the size and specifics of the storm.


If I used Google Maps correctly, the cyclone has a diameter of almost 1000km! [:|] It's enormous. Indeed, don't put yourself and the people around you in danger for a photo. I don't know exactly where you are in Australia, but I was curious about Steve U's location and I think he's not in the dangerzone(1500km from the core). Let's hope I got that right.



I just read about the snow storms over your way, gees that's horrible as well. Hope everyone stays safe.


Indeed, and hopefully the violence in Egypt will calm down as well. I saw some footage and it looks like medieval warfare around there. People with whips charging with horses and camels.



We're actually shutting down the mine as of tomorrow night until the cyclone goes through. That's a very big deal for us, the price of copper at the london metal exchange has actually risen by over $150/t in the last 24 hours since the world found out we're shutting down.


We don't use a lot of copper where I work, but my boss follows the prices and he told me today [;)]







Here in the Netherlands we have trouble when we have 10cm of snow


We got about 20 cm (8") here in Boston yesterday, bringing us to ~2
meters of snow so far this season...and we've had about 3 days since the
snow started that the temperatures edged above freezing, meaning no
melting and huge piles of snow everywhere, with nowhere to put it. It's
snowing outside right now - I drove into work over ~ 4 cm of snow on
the streets. Of course, I'll take the snow over the ice and freezing
rain we'll be getting by this afternoon.





I think we had 50cm this season so far at max. The worst problems were traffic-problems and slippery sidewalks --> injured people. Still, no match at all with the massive storms and snowproblems elsewhere.


Luckily this cyclone and those snowstorms are mostly predictable.


Take care people.

[Steve U]

Well the winds hit at about 175mph and it must have been a terrifynig ordeal for those that went through it. Initial reports are better than expected. Significant damage but if a cyclone was to cross anywhere the people who live up north are more used to it that anyone. The buildings have been built to take it power is cut and there are a lot of missing roofs but we were ready for this one.


Not a fan of her politics, but our state Premier has done an incredible job of mobilising emergency services and communication has been extensive.


This morning there are news reporters being followed by camera men, holding their iphones and skyping direct to live TV, impressive even if it is a bit scratchy.


With daylight more details will emerge.


Cheers,


Steve

[MattG]

Stay safe everyone!

[Kayaker72]

winds hit at about 175mph


That is a monster. I share Matthew's and others sentiments--stay safe.

[Sinh Nhut Nguyen]

Everybody take care and stay safe!...


Greeting from from Sunny Warmy Southern California :D :D :D


Nate,

[erno james]

Steve U, we need you to become this sites

[btaylor]

Well,

The eye of the cyclone hit a bit further south than
initially expected. A lot of towns were evacuated but in great news
there are no reports of fatalities. I guess Queenslanders have been
through cyclones before so they are aware of what to expect but nobody
knew what to expect with this one due to its size.

The storm surge on the coast produced waves up to 9m! That's incredible.



I just did a search on the cyclone that is
about to hit and the lead to the story was your copper mine shutting
down. Wow, 300,000 tons a year. I guess I have no reference point
other than that is a lot of pennies.


Well that's 300,000
tonnes of copper anode a year - refined to around 99% purity. Last year
we pulled just over 6.1 million tonnes of ore at around 2.8% copper
average up the shaft. But yes it's a huge opportunity cost to the
company shutting down for 24 hours - it very rarely happens. We are a
major supplier to the world market and have a pretty strong influence on
the old supply/demand curve.



Not a fan of her politics, but our state
Premier has done an incredible job of mobilising emergency services and
communication has been extensive.


I agree 100% with you
Steve. I haven't always been a big supporter of Anna Bligh but the way
she has handled both the floods and this cyclone has been excellent. I
think the proactive nature of her handling this has potentially saved a
lot of lives. She's definitely shown a human side you don't often too
with politicians. Much better than the robot we've got running the
country.


I just watched an interview with a banana farmer in Tully on the news. He has just lost his entire crop for the second time since cyclone Larry in 2006. His roof has been ripped off his house and there's pretty much crap everywhere. He was sitting there drinking a beer with a mate and his wife having a laugh. When the reporter asked how it was last night his response was "Bloody windy ahahaahh, at least now it'll be easier to put that skylight in I've been avoiding for the last month eh!" Kind of epitomises the Australian spirit. I guess we're all larrakins at heart.


Well I'm off to start tying down the outdoor furniture, they expect it to hit us as a Category 1 or 2 cyclone at 8 pm. Shouldn't be too bad, upward of 150km/h winds are predicted but the rain following will be the worst part. There's a river between myself and my work, maybe I'll get a couple of days off if I can't get there!


Take care,


Ben.


P.S Jan I agree the riots in Egypt are just shocking. I was due to head to Jordan for work in a month's time but I don't see that happening now.

[Sheiky]

I just watched an interview with a banana farmer in Tully on the news. He has just lost his entire crop for the second time since cyclone Larry in 2006. His roof has been ripped off his house and there's pretty much crap everywhere. He was sitting there drinking a beer with a mate and his wife having a laugh. When the reporter asked how it was last night his response was "Bloody windy ahahaahh, at least now it'll be easier to put that skylight in I've been avoiding for the last month eh!" Kind of epitomises the Australian spirit. I guess we're all larrakins at heart.


Haha that's the same guy I listened to when I watched the Livefeed. It was still night back then, so there was no footage nor journalism, but I'm pretty sure it's the same man. He just rebuild his shed with all his tractors and machines and the roof collapsed onto it...but still, he could laugh about it and was positive. Amazing!



ell I'm off to start tying down the outdoor furniture, they expect it to hit us as a Category 1 or 2 cyclone at 8 pm. Shouldn't be too bad, upward of 150km/h winds are predicted but the rain following will be the worst part. There's a river between myself and my work, maybe I'll get a couple of days off if I can't get there!


Hmmm, to put everything into some perspective. Currently we have "stormy" weather here in the Netherlands. The main airfield: Schiphol deals with major delays and cancellations. Very little damage to houses etc, but fallen branches etc are present. Even in our backyard, and we're living more inland. To put a number to it, they are talking to wind gusts of about 85-90km/h. If this kind of wnd has a "destructive" effect, imagine what 300km/h must be like. Ouch! It's good to hear that it all worked out pretty well giving the circumstances in Australia, but man that must have been a storm!



P.S Jan I agree the riots in Egypt are just shocking. I was due to head to Jordan for work in a month's time but I don't see that happening now.


I'm not sure how it will work out. I believe it's relatively calm at this moment, but it's still very unstable. I don't about Jordan, but it's not really close to Egypt so you might be alright. However it seems like it's unstable in more countries in Northern Africa at this moment. We'll see. If it's safe, it sounds like a nice place to go to for business.


Good luck crossing the river Ben [;)]

[bob williams]

Ben, Steve, I am assuming the worst of the storm is now past, but the news says lots of people without power, thought maybe thats the reason for no update.--hope all is well with you two and your friends and family. Let us know how you weathered the storm. As for here, still well below freezing, we hit 17 below with windchill of 30 below in the valley--mountains had windchills of 50 below (in new Mexico), 30,000 people without gas in New Mexico (JUST ONE WEEK AFTER THEY REQUESTED A RATE HIKE!!!) I can

[bob williams]

OOps, double thumbed the keyboard--Anyway, I have been through lots of hurricaines, but nothing like what you guys faced this week---Our hearts are with you and and all the other Queenslanders--let us know how your doing as soon as you can.


Bob

[Steve U]

Thanks for your kind thoughts Bob. My family and I are fine. My thoughts are also with you guys as the blizzards take their toll over there, I know Denise and Wisconsin have copped the worst of it.


While devastating for those in the direct path of the cylcone, it did cross in one of the relatively less populated areas, where unfortunately they have lived and rebuilt with cyclone threats in mind. It is heartbreaking though to see men reduced to tears as they try and recover from this again. Farmers, busines people and families have had their resilience well and truely tested.


Cycles, everything happens in cycles apparantly, this global weird weather, the economy and these so-called one-in-one hundred year "weather events." Well we have had enough, I think we should ban cycles and all take up walking.


We will endure.


To bring this back to a photographic frustration. In Brisbane here we lived through some of the worst weather in history recently. The authorities warned us to stay away from flood areas. We would be turned away, this was not the time for sightseers, emergency services had to have unimpeded access. Being the keen photographer, this pained me as I had a bag of lenses and wanted to capture some of these once in a life time images. So I heeded their warnings and stayed away.


I must have been the only one who did. Last weekend, the leading paper published a glossy magazine covering the floods, conveying the story as told by us and the graphic pictures taken by the residents. I haven

[bob williams]

Glad to hear you and your family are ok, Steve. Sounds like your Premier and countrymen were ready for this one--way to go. I also applaud your ethics with staying out of the way of emergency services. Its one thing to put yourself at risk for "the shot" but quite another to put someone else in danger--too many photogs fail to consider the risk they place on someone else just to get a photo---That is simply unacceptable. I appreciate good photojournalism as much as anyone else, but not at the risk of the general public. I feel guilty if I spook a flock of birds trying to get a shot.


Again, glad to hear all is well,


Bob

[btaylor]

All good here. By the time the storm reached us it was downgraded to a tropical low so it wasn

[bob williams]

Glad to hear all is ok, Ben--Thanks for letting us know.


Bob