Cyclone Yasi in Cairns

Thur 3 Feb 2011 3:48 pm
This Blog will be as long as the battery on my Macbook Pro lasts – its says just under 2 hours but I’m also trying to charge my iPhone from it so it might be less. We have been without power since 2 am Wed morning.
How did Nicky and I get ourselves in the potentially life-threatening situation of being in the path of Category 5 Cyclone Yasi. Read on...

Sun 30 Jan
Even though Yasi had been on the radar since 26 January, up until Sunday we had been more concerned about Cyclone Anthony because it was closing in fast. But by Sunday we were fairly certain that Anthony would hit the coast in Southern Queensland, so our main concern was how it might affect Nicky’s trip to Townsville on Mon 31. She was due to spend a week meeting new colleagues.

On Sunday night I was sure that work would cancel her trip because Anthony was on course to hit Bowen, which is 170 km south of Townsville and Yasi was known to be approaching and likely to hit the coast on Thursday 3 Feb. Nicky said that if Yasi did hit while I was away I should be sure to fill up the water bottles and tape the windows. Thereafter followed a debate on the value of taping up windows…

Mon 31 Jan
Nicky flew to Townsville. I dug out the Cyclone Emergency instructions and filled up the car and went shopping. I got some pot noodles and tinned peaches and a few other tins – mainly junk we would never normally eat. The stocks of long life milk and the nice soups, were depleted in the IGA. By that night the BOM (Bureau of Metrology) said they expected Yasi to hit Townsville – which is 350 kms South of Cairns – far enough South not to affect us too much, as long as Nicky could get back before then.

Nicky's colleagues in Townsville were already winding themselves up – recalling other Category 4 Cyclones Larry and Tracy where houses were rased to the ground, telegraph poles had been sliced in half by corrugated iron sheets, and blades of grass were driven into wood. Some got on flights to Brisbane. Nicky said she would cut her trip short and fly home on Tuesday.

Tue 1 Feb
I arrived at work in Gordonvale 20 kms South of Cairns and went straight into a disaster planning meeting called by the Principal. While we were in the meeting, the BOM said that Yasi was now expected to become a Category 4 Cyclone and hit Gordonvale. 6 years ago the school suffered damage after Cyclone Larry hit Innisfail, which is 90 kms from Cairns, but was much smaller in diameter than the expected size of Yasi.

The Principal decided that our boarders would go to our sister school north of Cairns on Weds morning. Staff would spend Tuesday morning doing a sweep of the school clearing up loose items and tying things down and putting equipment in sheds. Staff could leave at one pm to go and sort out their own properties. A directive from Queensland Education then said that all Government schools would be closed until Monday 7 Feb.

A this stage the BOM warning area extended from Cooktown in the North to Yeppoon in the south – a distance of 1400km. It also extended to Mt Isa, about 1250km West. Basically it is impossible to tell exactly where a cyclone will hit though this estimate becomes more accurate the closer it gets to shore . Its only known about an hour before it hits where its going to hit, but even then it can still twist north or south.

Yasi was about 1200 kms out to sea. I was convinced there was still time to start driving to escape it, but my colleagues (many cyclone veterans) disagreed. They said North wasn’t an option for us, especially since we sold the 4 x 4 troopy because the roads are so bad, also the Cyclone could turn north at any time. Ditto for South. You would have to drive for 2 days South to avoid danger. Danger not only from the cyclone, but also from people panic driving on roads and flooding rivers.

Also, you really need somewhere to go to. You can’t stay in the car, and when you’ve got cats in tow that means caravan parks, if you’re lucky. My colleagues also pointed out that if you leave, you run the risk of not being able to get back for weeks due to flooding, trees on roads etc.

That made me realise that Cairns could get cut off and goods run out in the shops, which often happens in the wet season, let alone in a Cyclone situation. So after work I went to the IGA in Gordonvale and got some more supplies – cheese and crackers and batteries and black bin bags, and cash in case the ATMs stopped working.

Gordonvale is a small place and it wasn’t very busy – in contrast to other shopping centres , which I later heard were full of panic buyers. Throughout the day Nicky was in contact, increasingly concerned. She was unable to get on a flight, and a possible lift with a colleague’s husband fell through. At 12 pm she managed to get on a bus due to arrive back in Cairns at 6 pm.

I came home and took down the shade sail from the pool – not an easy task due to rusted clips and cleats and tightly knotted ropes. I also cut down two big branches from the Avocado tree, which were already beginning to lash against the roof. I then went back to the shops for the third time, to get more cat food in case the siege went on for weeks.

Nicky got home exhausted and we collapsed onto our loungers on the balcony. I said we should start driving South, because there was still time to get away. The only problem was we hadn’t packed up the house – you have to tidy everything away in every room to avoid damage in case windows break and the wind and rain get in and turns all loose items into missiles. Also, we both felt exhausted and unequal to a long drive – especially in the Laser which is not the most robust car to provide protection in a storm.

One of our neighbours came walking past and reassured us that at least our area would be unlikely to flood. He said we should be alright if we took shelter in the bathroom of the granny flat downstairs and that we could come and shelter at his place if we wanted. But this wasn’t an option for us because his house is wooden just like ours and just as vulnerable to flying debris. We went to bed feeling sick and scared.

Wed 2 Feb
We woke up at 6.30 to the news that Yasi was now a Category 5 and due to hit the coast between Cairns and Innisfail. The only other category 5 Cyclone we knew about was Cyclone Tracy that flattened Darwin in 1974, with a loss of 70 lives. I kicked myself that we hadn’t started driving south the previous night. I wondered whether we could get into a hotel with the cats. Going to an evacuation centre wasn’t an option because they don’t take animals - also as it turned out they reached capacity and started turning people away by 10.30 am.

Our mates Sarah and Seej live at Holloways Beach, which like all the beaches, is a compulsory evacuation zone due to the high risk of flooding. The previous day they’d told us they were going to stay with biker friends in Brinsmead which is one of the safest suburbs in Cairns – high up and between two hills. Plus their biker friends Stacey and Shiraz live in a new block house built to the highest cyclone rating - unlike our high-set wooden house which was built 30 or 40 years ago before all the new standards came in.

I texted Sarah who said we were very welcome to join the party in Brinsmead, but that we should hurry to get there before the gale force winds started, and in case there was traffic congestion or trees on the road.

Once again we cursed ourselves because instead of relaxing on our loungers the previous night, we should have been packing up the house. Actually, we should have started packing up the house at the weekend. In 2 hours we taped up all the windows, Nicky tied down everything in the workshop; we moved all the electronic stuff into the bathroom, threw all the linen out of the hallway cupboard to make way got all the computer and film stuff, and packed up the car and the cats.

We were driven by terror. I couldn’t find the deeds to my London flat and had to leave without them. I couldn’t take all my hard drives and archive array or film stuff, so faced losing everything. But we were more worried about getting safely to Brinsmead, which is on the other side of town, and we felt we had to take sufficient supplies for a week since we were guests who had invited themselves.

We arrived in Brinsmead at 9.30 am. There was quite a lot of traffic on the road and people still queuing at the filling stations, but the drive was mainly uneventful. However, we arrived feeling sick and headachy and shattered – which just shows how much stress affects you even if you aren’t aware of it.

The TV was tuned to Cyclone watch and for the resy of the day we heard
- Cyclone Yasi is the biggest system ever to hit Queensland. It is severe Category 5 and the eye has a diameter of 100 kms.
- It is due to hit the coast between Cairns and Innisfail between 10 pm and 12 am but we’ll know more precisely where by 5 pm
- It is far bigger and more active than Cyclone Tracy
- Be prepared for terrifying noise and no power and no phone reception, and chaos erupting around you.
- Put your shoes on now because you’ll need them tomorrow, and if you leave them off you may not be able to find them later.
- The gales force winds will last for 10 hours before the Cyclone hits the coastline and for at least 10 hours afterwards.
- A 2m storm surge in conjunction with a high tide will cause wide-spread flooding.

It was very exhausting so we ate a pot noodle and then went for a nap. In the afternoon, we watched ‘Twister’ to put us in the right mood and cracked open the coolies. We started on beer and graduated to wine – so by 11 pm, with a nice barbeque dinner inside us, cooked by Chef Stacey, we were in bed.

I am ashamed to say we were asleep when the Cyclone hit Mission Beach, Cardwell and Tully at 12 am. The background picture of this Blog is from Tully.

Yes, there had been wind and rain in Brinsmead but it didn’t seem even as dramatic as the normal storms we get here. In fact someone joked that the sound of the fans going at max plus the dishwasher sounded more like a Cyclone than the cyclone itself.

However, what hit us was a Category 2 rather than a category 5 because in the end we were 160 kms North of the eye.

Thur 3 Feb
We had more of a taste of reality when we left Brinsmead with its manicured streets and ornamental palm trees, and came home to Edmonton early this morning. Our garden is devastated – mainly the huge rainforest trees and the massive lychee tree. Our neighbours said the storm was noisy and terrifying. They had a missile go through one of their back windows with the glass propelled to the other side of the house. Bits and pieces of another neighbour’s roof is on the park. Our fence is gone with the dog-side neighbours, which is a pity for the cats because it means they can’t go out yet. They are desperate to go out marauding after being in the cat box and a small room for 24 hours.

The worst mistake we made was to leave the recycling box out. So now the recycling is strewn all over the garden and several of the beer bottles have been smashed to smithereens, which is difficult to clean up and another hazard for the cats.

We have spent the whole day cutting up branches and dragging them across to the park for the council to pick up, but we’re still probably only halfway through the job. Its been raining quite a bit and we are still without power and our phones are running out of juice.

One unreal aspect of this experiences is that power only went out at 2 am, so through out it all we have been in touch with friends and family by text and Facebook - strange but very supportive.

I have just received a text from the Principal – we have to go into work tomorrow.

8 mins to go on my laptop battery.

Still no power but Nicky has fired up the gas lamp and we have our Kindles with their “Night Owl” lights.

Over and out.

Postscript Sat 5 Feb

We were very lucky to be hauled out of bed at 7.3 this morning by a tree lopper, whose services had been engaged by our neighbours as part of an insurance claim. This professional crew tidied up the branches from the neighbour's trees that had fallen into our garden. We took the opportunity to pay for an hour of their time to tidy up many of the shredded trees in our garden.

But it was very sad to see him decimate our slice of rainforest.

The vegetation debris from our garden has been relocated across the road to the park, where it is lined up with all the debris from neighbouring properties. We've probably got 3-4 ute loads of debris, so it just shows the scale of the task facing the council. They have to clear up all the residential debris plus all the communal debris.

We also recovered all the items that we had thrown into the pool for safety - metal posts, wooden planks, ladders, hoses, garden furniture etc It was like swimming in vegetable soup with the amount of leaves and branches floating on the surface and sunk to the floor.


A guest on the tree lopper's shredder

We achieved a massive amount especially since we are exhausted by so much physical labour and stress in this heat. Yesterday, we both went to work, Nicky for a day of stress with computer problems, and me for an exhausting morning of manual labour clearing debris at the College. Now we have to face putting the inside of the house back together again. Fortunately power came on at 1.30 this morning, so at least we can now cook and do the washing.

Lessons learned

- We need to start preparing earlier
- We need to scan more of our important documents
- We have to somehow create a cyclone safe room in the house because La Nina is expected to produce several more cyclones this season alone.
- We have to keep the garden cut back, especially the big trees.

A sobering thought