"Axel Hammerschmidt" <hlexa@hotmail.com> skrev i en meddelelse
news:Xns9E81D957B68Ehlexahotmailcom@130.225.254.104...
> N_B.DK:
>
>> "Lars Kongshøj" <lars_kongshoj@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:4d49c4ab$0$23758$14726298@news.sunsite.dk
>>
>>> Denne her tråd har vist heller ikke meget med videnskab at gøre,
>>> snarere om sensationsjournalistikkens spekulationer om
>>> konsekvenserne af et forestående blæsevejr.
>>
>> En cyklon i kat 5 er blæsevejr?
>
> Den blev nedgraderet til kat 3.
Ja efter den 'gik i land'. Til sammenligning hade Cyklone Tracy en Cat 3-4 styrke.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Tracy
Dette må være en noget underlig oplevelse.
Mr Wilson said the hotel building had been built to withstand category 5
cyclones, but the walls were shaking as the cyclone hit.
"It sounded a lot like a jet engine - it was almost unbearable, the noise," he said.
"You could hear the sound of the trees being shredded and the occasional snap."
The eye of the cyclone passed directly over the town.
"It went absolutely quiet - the stars were shining, there was a symphony
of frogs crocking ... then about 45 minutes later the maelstrom came
back," Mr Wilson said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10703850
Cyclone Yasi: 90pc of bananas gone
There are early predictions more than 90 per cent of Australia's banana crop
was wiped out as Yasi blew through north Queensland overnight.
The sugar industry is also counting the cost of the disaster, with suggestions
crop losses of up to half a billion dollars.
North Queensland's small coastal communities appear to have borne the
brunt of Cyclone Yasi's fury, while the region's major cities of Cairns
and Townsville escaped relatively unscathed.
The town of Tully is emerging as the one of the worst hit, with reports
that no trees have been left standing and 90 per cent of the main street
is extensively damaged.
"At this stage there are no reports of any serious injuries or fatalities"
This afternoon (NZT) Ms Bligh said the hardest hit towns were Tully,
Silkwood, Mission Beach, Cardwell and Innisfail - where power poles had
been snapped in half.
"In Tully, for example, the early estimate is that one in three houses
has either lost its roof or been completely demolished, and more than 20
per cent of businesses in the main are significantly impacted," she
said.
The seaside township of Cardwell, which was completely evacuated on
Wednesday, had sustained "significant devastation", Ms Bligh said.
Emergency crews had only recently cut their way into Cardwell,
Ms Bligh said.
'Trees like matchsticks'
Yasi made landfall at Mission Beach about midnight (AEST) when it was
still a category five tropical cyclone.
The manager of the Elandra Resort David Brook said the area now looked
like "Vietnam (in the war movie) Apocalypse Now".
Trees are down, cars have been swept away, roofs have been torn off and
the sand on the beach is gone.
"Nothing's been spared. The devastation is phenomenal, like nothing I've
ever experienced," the veteran of at least five cyclones told the ABC.
"The only thing I can compare it to is standing on the wing of a 747
while it is going 600km/h. There's an undulating roar. Your ears are
popping.
"I've never experienced anything like it."
The environment around his resort had been all but destroyed by the
storm, he said.
"I'm just looking at it now through the broken windows of my rental car.
"The trees are like matchsticks. The driveway is completely covered in
branches. The bush we drove through to get here has been completely
defoliated."
Police who bunkered down in the Mission Beach police station said they
didn't know how bad the damage was, as it was still too dangerous for a
proper look around.
But officer in charge Sergeant Dan Gallagher said trees had been reduced
to sticks, streets were littered with debris, and some buildings had
been damaged.
"... I'm expecting extensive damage," he said.
Street 'ripped apart'
Ms Bligh said the first assessment of the town of Tully, home to 3,500
residents, had 90 per cent of the main street "extensively damaged".
Linda Timms, a reporter with the Tully Times, told ABC Radio she now has
a clear view of Mt Mackay, which was previously obstructed by trees.
"There are trees down everywhere," she said, agreeing it was not an
exaggeration to say there was not a tree standing in Tully.
Tully resident Stephanie Grimaz said houses in her street had been
ripped apart.
"The flat from across the street is in our front yard and we can see
other houses which have just been destroyed," she told AAP.
"There are sheets of iron everywhere, the streets are just full of
debris."
Red Cross worker Noelene Byrne decided to move the evacuation centre
from Tully's senior citizens hall on Wednesday night because she feared
the 10 people there would not be safe.
"I'm now in front of the senior citizens and it's one mangled heap," she
told ABC Radio on Thursday morning.
"Had I left people there, there would have been loss of life.
"The destruction there is just heartbreaking.
"It's just the front wall of the hall that's standing, the rest is just
one big scrap heap."
Veteran Cardwell Shire Councillor and former Mayor Joe Galeano lost 70
per cent of his 12,000 tonne cane crop and the guttering from his house
in the howling winds of Cyclone Yasi.
He endured four hours of those winds sheltering in a shed, waiting near
a tied up boat in case flood waters arrived.
The cyclone was the worst he'd experienced in 72 years at Lower Tully -
15km from the Tully township, he said.
"The only way to describe the wind is - it's like a monster trying to
get at you.
"I've been through a lot of cyclones but this was the worst I've ever
seen. It was howling. It was worse than Cyclone Larry by miles. I don't
know what someone who had never experienced anything like it would have
done."
Noise 'the worst thing'
A spokeswoman for the Cassowary Coast disaster coordination service said
Tully residents had reported roofs off on coastal homes, broken windows,
fallen trees and foliage stripped from the landscape.
One family had to wait out the storm under a vehicle after their garage
roller door was blown off by the cyclone.
"They're just lucky they had that vehicle to shelter behind.
"It seems the noise of the wind was the worst thing. It was just
frightening at 12am, hearing things and not knowing what was being
damaged."
The damage would have been worse had a predicted storm surge reached its
expected heights, she said.
News Limited photographer John Wilson called ABC Radio from a hotel in
Tully.
Mr Wilson said the hotel building had been built to withstand category 5
cyclones, but the walls were shaking as the cyclone hit.
"It sounded a lot like a jet engine - it was almost unbearable, the
noise," he said.
"You could hear the sound of the trees being shredded and the occasional
snap."
The eye of the cyclone passed directly over the town.
"It went absolutely quiet - the stars were shining, there was a symphony
of frogs crocking ... then about 45 minutes later the maelstrom came
back," Mr Wilson said.
'Like napalm'
At Innisfail, which was devastated by Cyclone Larry in 2006, Cassowary
councillor Bill Horsford said daylight had revealed a devastated
landscape.
"It's just like the place has been sprayed with napalm, there's hardly a
green leaf around, all of the beautiful mountains are now brown," he
told the ABC.
"The cane crops are going to be devastated, it's just going to be
devastation all round and all I can hope for is that there has been no
loss of life or serious injury."
Major General Peter Cosgrove, who led the recovery effort after Cyclone
Larry, said the main priority must be counting heads.
"It's particularly important in rural communities where you have farmers
that are isolated. Emergency workers have to make sure people are safe,"
he told the Nine Network.
The premier said a major logistical task was now looming, initially to
free up evacuation centres for people whose homes had been hit, and then
to rehouse those people.
"We don't know the extent of it yet, but we are planning for a very
significant homelessness problem, for potentially, you know, several
thousand people," she said.
Cairns escapes worst
Cyclone Yasi has left Cairns relatively unscathed and the city will be
open for business "very soon", the city's mayor says.
"The CBD and our beautiful esplanade in Cairns is unscathed," Mayor Val
Schier said on Thursday morning.
"The main concern at the moment is we're waiting for the electricity
authority to let us know the all clear because we don't want people
coming into contact with live power lines.
"We lost power in some suburbs from very early on - from 7 o'clock in
the evening - so the majority of Cairns is without power."
She said there had been no major reports of structural damage.
"We'll be out cleaning the streets and getting rid of the debris and
giving people the all clear to go home," she said.
Forecast
Tropical Cyclone Yasi was downgraded to a category 2 at 7am AEST (10am
NZT), with the wind gusts at the core in excess of 125km/h as it moves
in west-southwesterly inland.
Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said Yasi was south east of Georgetown
and continuing to weaken.
Senior forecaster Brett Harrison told ABC Radio the cyclone was likely
to remain a category 2 until 1pm, and expected to become a tropical low
by the time it reached the city of Mt Isa early tomorrow morning EST.
Damaging winds, with gusts above 90 km/hr, are occurring along the coast
and extend inland to Georgetown and Hughenden, the bureau said. They
will extend further west towards Richmond and Julia Creek during the
day.
Higher than normal tides and large waves are expected to continue
between Port Douglas and Ayr and sea levels may again exceed the high
water mark on the morning high tide, around 9.30am AEST (12.30 NZT)
"We are still expecting some rises around high tide, certainly a lot
less than we saw last night but there still is a danger," Mr Harrison
said.
The bureau is forecasting flood rains will continue along the coast and
ranges, with heavy rains extending across the adjacent inland, and flood
warnings remains in place for a number of rivers between Cairns and
Mackay.
- AAP, AP, NZ HERALD STAFF
Jan Rasmussen