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