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LARRY LATEST
Cyclone Larry is about four hours away from the north Queensland coast. Latest tracking data isn’t pretty. Larry is currently headed directly towards Innisfail:
Mission Beach (about 90 minutes south of Cairns) will also take a hit due to Larry’s 400km frontage. Stewart McCure, whose parents own a Mission Beach resort, reports:
As well as 240+km winds they’re to expect a 2m storm surge and they’ve had to move all possessions to 3rd floor of the building before leaving for higher ground – with decent red wine, in true McCure fashion. People will be without a lot of stuff tomorrow night (insurance generally doesn’t cover storm surges).
Thousands have fled or been evacuated:
Mandatory evacuations have been enforced in numerous low-lying seafront areas, including in the Johnstone and Cardwell shires, expected to bear the brunt of the cyclone and its four-metre storm surge.
In addition to the evacuation of island resorts in the path of the cyclone, emergency authorities also have warned residents in low-lying areas between Cairns and Townsville to “seriously consider” leaving.
Disaster coordination centres were yesterday activated in Cairns and Townsville while the Queensland Government sent teams from Brisbane, in response to imminent destruction caused by gale force winds, torrential rain and flooding.
Media coverage of Larry has been strikingly poor (as several commenters here note). I spoke to a professional news addict around 8pm and she hadn’t heard a thing about any cyclone. Commercial TV and radio largely missed Larry’s approach, possibly because its buildup was so rapid. ABC coverage, however, has been excellent. Major points from an ABC bulletin issued late last night:
* State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers are doorknocking tonight advising residents to leave.
* Bruce Gunn from the Queensland cyclone warning centre says the cyclone is expected to make landfall about 8am AEST, coinciding with a high tide.
* Hospitals have been evacuated and Cairns port and airport have been closed, with all flights suspended until further notice.
* The cyclone is expected to retain its intensity until at least Tuesday morning as it continues to push hundreds of kilometres inland.
* Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has officially declared a disaster situation, allowing authorities the legal power to forcibly remove any reluctant evacuees.
They might be less reluctant were they aware Larry is creeping up to category five:
The Bureau of Meteorology last night warned that it was likely to intensify into a category-five cyclone before hitting the coast south of Innisfail between 7.30am and 8.00am today.
If it is upgraded, the storm could unleash greater fury than Cyclone Tracy, the category-four storm that killed 64 people and destroyed most of Darwin in 1974.
Larry news seems to be minimal even in areas under threat:
Mena from Sweden was one of the many foreign tourists sunning themselves at the lagoon on the Cairns esplanade today.
She had no idea a category 4 cyclone was hovering off the coast.
“Is it true? You’re not making it up,” she said.
Mena says no one at her hostel has told her how to prepare for a cyclone.
UPDATE. The USS Peleliu, USS Ogden and USS Germantown have left the danger zone.
UPDATE II. Don’t bother searching for information from the Cairns Post:
The Cairns Post does not itself have a web site ...
UPDATE III. Reader bc notes that “the photo currently running on Drudge Report is upside down.”
UPDATE IV. Kadesu tracks looming Larry.
UPDATE V. Queensland state Counter Disaster and Rescue Services executive director Frank Pagano:
“This is the most devastating cyclone that we could potentially see on the east coast of Queensland for decades ... there is going to be destruction,” Pagano told reporters in Brisbane.
“Katrina was a category five—this is currently a category four that can develop similar to the American one,” he added.
UPDATE VI. Look at the goddamn size of this thing:
Via Andrea.
Where are you located in comparison to this, Tim?
Be safe, and good luck Australia.
I did have to say, if this were America, you each of the networks would have deadly sounding theme song and graphics and would have sent a handsome newsreader to the edge of the front lines to (mis)report/ sensationlaize with their hair blowing by now.
Upside down? That looks very much like the north-west coast of WA to me. I suspect it is a shot of Clare or Daryl from earlier in the WA cyclone season.
Posted by William Bowe on 2006 03 19 at 11:32 AM • permalinkAlso, you’ll note the cyclone shown on the Drudge Report pic has already made landfall. Obviously not Larry then.
Posted by William Bowe on 2006 03 19 at 11:35 AM • permalinkThat’s crazy. Whenever a hurricane heads towards us, you can’t get any other coverage.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 03 19 at 11:39 AM • permalinkHere’s the local coverage for Innisfail from Weather.com. Scroll down for a radar map of the nasty thing.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 03 19 at 11:42 AM • permalinkTim, yhe government can’t handle it all, so are there any non-governmental organizations ready to help? And are there any that will be taking donations? And hopefully through the INTERNET.
I’d like to help my Australian mates.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 03 19 at 11:47 AM • permalinkTim — As long as the local governments seem to be on top of it, count media absence as a blessing.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 03 19 at 11:58 AM • permalinkminimal coverage...unbelieveable.
As Andrea noted, here you can’t find anything else. Hell we have people of all shapes, sizes and gender in the damn thing, reporting.
What in the god damn hell do these ‘journalists’ and ‘broadcasters’ think IS NEWS....much less warning of who is next or projected path, where to find shelter and necessities if needed, etc. etc., and it looks like shelter and necessities are for sure.
Thank you, yojimbo. I just made a donation.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 03 19 at 12:25 PM • permalinkHurricanes are US news because they’re ratings-producers. People like crisis and stay tuned in. Old Dan Rather will be down there hanging onto a lamppost while somebody throws water in his face, for days ahead of time, and post disaster coverage will milk it for weeks.
I’d guess (Austr.) ABC doesn’t care about those ratings, and panders elsewhere.
Second cyclone on Larry’s tail.
This may hamper clean up efforts.
It’s still eerily quiet in Cairns. Barely raining. I can even see some stars.
ABC local (Queensland) is covering it. It’s also the headline story on the Aus ABC News Online. NineMSN has it, but not front page.
CNN is now covering it (top story in their ‘World’ section) though their headline is on war protestors (sigh). MSNBC doesn’t seem to have noticed yet.
Fascinating - it would be top story in most of the US (as Andrea said, “Whenever a hurricane heads towards us, you can’t get any other coverage.”) - be thankful you are being spared the videos of idots out on the beach hours before landfall, pretending to be staggered by 18kph gusts…
Btw, I’m quite sure USS Peleliu, USS Ogden, and USS Germantown will return if they are needed. (Ships may be the quickest way to get large amounts of supplies in if roads are blocked.
Media coverage of Larry has been strikingly poor…
Perhaps we could send Shep Smith down, or Jerry Rivera—they live for this. Also Gunga Dan Rather is an ace at the intrepid water’s-edge-wind-blown-rain-driven-look-at-me-aren’t-I-courageous style of reporting and I understand he’s not too busy right now. In the States we don’t know disaster is even looming unless and until we see their silly on-scene on-screen mugging. Even better, we can send disaster expert Mike “Brownie” Brown who also, as it happens, isn’t busy at the moment. Oh no, no thanks necessary—that’s what friends are for.
Seriously, good luck and stay safe, Queenslanders. I do think that any storm of this mass, intensity and potential devastation deserves a more commanding name than “Larry” (no disrespect intended to all the “Larrys” out there of course). Lawrence, at least.
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 03 19 at 12:41 PM • permalinkIt’s still eerily quiet in Cairns. Barely raining. I can even see some stars.
Ah, the ominous calm before….
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 03 19 at 12:46 PM • permalink“Katrina was a category five—this is currently a category four that can develop similar to the American one,” he added.
But Katrina was only a 3 when she came ashore; if Larry stays a 5 then it will be much worse.
Get
Out
Now.Posted by Mr. Bingley on 2006 03 19 at 12:47 PM • permalinkGodspeed! Do your best to stay safe and please remember, cannibalism is a last resort.
Posted by lil varmint on 2006 03 19 at 12:54 PM • permalinkHmmm.
Holy C**P! Is that thing the size of New Zealand?
Godspeed and good luck to all you aussies in the path of that monster.
Posted by memomachine on 2006 03 19 at 01:00 PM • permalinkInnisfail, lovely looking quaint town. Study the pictures, as it may not look that way for a long, long time.
Hopefully ALL that needed to go, or are and were ordered to do so, did.
Equally hopeful, is the lack of looting and price gouging, OR is it that just plain rotten human nature, to take advantage of peoples disasters?
Note: the weather is always beautiful right up until the first bands get to shore. I think it’s because the winds suck up all the moisture from the surrounding territory. I’ll never forget walking around Coconut Grove (tony Miami shopping district on the bay) the afternoon before Hurricane Andrew was due to hit, remarking on what a beautiful day it was. The next morning the streets I had been walking around were piled high with boats.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 03 19 at 01:23 PM • permalinkShit….here is the link the other just a satellite shot.
While I’m unfamiliar with Australian mitigation efforts I’m gonna throw this out there for whatever it may be worth given the apparent subpar media coverage.
Even for areas that have been hardened it’s generally accepted that the damage caused by a category five storm will be “catastrophic”. Keep in mind that Building codes are a compromise. If you are not sure of the structure you are in seek a designated shelter. personally, having made it through a cat 4 I’d be shitting a brick if I was anywhere within the cone of probability…Then of course there is the aftermath, which in many ways is worse than the actual storm.
Godspeed Ya’ll.
Category Five Hurricane:
Winds greater than 155 mph (135 kt or 249 km/hr). Storm surge generally greater than 18 ft above normal. Complete roof failure on many residences and industrial buildings. Some complete building failures with small utility buildings blown over or away. All shrubs, trees, and signs blown down. Complete destruction of mobile homes. Severe and extensive window and door damage. Low-lying escape routes are cut by rising water 3-5 hours before arrival of the center of the hurricane. Major damage to lower floors of all structures located less than 15 ft above sea level and within 500 yards of the shoreline. Massive evacuation of residential areas on low ground within 5-10 miles (8-16 km) of the shoreline may be required…The only saving grace is the speed of this thing-about 15 mph. As a crude rule of thumb you can divide the speed into 100 and get the general amount of rain to be expected. That computes out to about 7 inches of rain. Certainly not great but still better than 10-12 inches of rain from a storm that just hangs there.
Back in 96 i was working in Mission Beach when a Category 3 hit the joint. In the preceeding period it was sunny and calm as the cyclone was camped off the coast sucking all the weather in.
Fortunately I was in a cyclone-proof building (bessar-block) and survived the worst of it. The district received 700 mm (23in) of rain in 24 hours.
This one however is much worse and looks like a disaster for FNQ.
Also I have a mate living on a yacht in Innisfail. He’s been trying to sell it for ages and may well be too late now. Got his life savings in it. Poor bastard.
Somebody correct me if I am wrong, but won’t the worst part of the damage be to the south of the storm track? Cyclonic storms in the southern hemisphere move in a clockwise direction right? So the “right arm” we hear about with N. hemisphere hurricanes would be the left in this case. Don’t know what difference it makes in terms of where the population is or how the terrain lies. I hope everyone took the warnings to heart and skedaddled.
Larry is now a cat 5 and 50 km off Innisfail:
“etails of Severe Tropical Cyclone Larry, Category 5, for 5.30 am AEST Monday
Central Pressure : 915 Hectopascals
Location of Centre : within 20 kilometres of
latitude 17.5 degrees south
longitude 146.5 degrees east
about 50 kilometres east of InnisfailRecent Movement : West at 25 kilometres per hour
Destructive winds : out to 120 kilometres from the centre
Maximum wind gusts : 290 kilometres per hour”I read this post. I then decided to check my e-mail over at Yahoo.com. And what are Yahoo.news’ top headlines at this moment? Well these earth-shattering items:
• Iraqis face ‘painful anniversary’ of war
• War opponents protest around the globe
• Opposition rallies as Belarus polls close
• U.S. fails to resolve Gaza border dispute
• Potential 2008 candidates campaign in N.H.
• Pixar stock certificates to be collectable
• Blake works as ranch hand, plans comeback
• NCAA Tourney - Bracket | NBA · NHL · NFLAt Yahoo.news, those headlines are constantly changed and updated, with some headlines staying up for a day or two if the story is important. (And the two headlines that really frost my ass, for Yahoo.news actually thinking anyone would care, are the last two—about Pixar and Robert Blake.)
Posted by David Crawford on 2006 03 19 at 04:33 PM • permalinkIt looks like Larry has made landfall. Any reports?
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2006 03 19 at 04:48 PM • permalinkCyclone Larry a Category Five storm just confirmed on Channel Seven weather. The ABC Australia news site is now running fairly regular updates, but news from other outlets is still remarkably thin on the ground, with less than two hours to landfall.
This site, and the postings here, were the most most comprehensive source of online info (at least in Australia) during the night, with links to updated weather maps, radar images and the tropical storm warning bulletins popping up fresh here sometimes half an hour before they reached lamestream news sites, if those sites bothered to update at all.
Another blog, Cyclone Larry : The Aftermath - http://www.cyclonelarryaftermath.blogspot.com - probably jumped the gun a bit with its name, but it also had fresh sat and radar images and news updates through the night.
While there hasn’t been an enormous amount of dramatic news during the night here in Australia, it is still quite astounding that one man blogs like this are shitting all over the mega-resources of news.com.au and smh.com.au for the latest coverage and updates.
For those with friends and family in the cyclone zone who don’t know of this site, and wanted to keep finding out the latest, it must have been like a virtual news blackout.
A piss-poor show from the lamestream for decent coverage of the early hours of one of the biggest Australian news stories of the year so far.
Will the Commonweath Games, seemingly the sole obsession last night of smh.com.au, prove more important than this story? Highly frugging doubtful.
Posted by LeftieLatteLover on 2006 03 19 at 04:49 PM • permalinkThat’s right LLL.
The coverage is absolutely woeful of what will be the biggest story for at least a week.
Admittedly, it developed very fast and WAS on the weekend, but channel nine in particualr has completely lost the plot. Too Melbourne centric for its own good.Channel seven has managed to get their weatherman into Townsville, where I suspect he squashed his umbrella to make it look like he is extemely high winds. He is 200 km south of the real action. Sunrise are probably looking at it as an opportunity to kill nine in the morning ratings again. No other coverage on the other channels, where it sort of rates secondary to gold medals so far…..
For non-Australians, I think one of the reasons why news coverage has(had) been some what spotty is that we expect cyclones at this time of year.
While FNQ newspapers get little of News Limited resources for fripperies such as web sites, you can be sure that local coverage as been thorough.
As for the tourists - well who looks at newspapers or the TV news while on holidays? (Well maybe Nick and I, but we’re weird).
Queensland news has been following Larry for the past week but it doesn’t surprise me that coverage has been quiet down south.
After all Cairns is about 1000km north of Brisbane and another 1000km away from Sydney, which begins to give you the scale. Map shownhere..
I recall about 10-15 years ago complains by tourism operators that every time there was wide publicity about a cyclone or potential cyclone holiday bookings to north Queensland would plummet regardless of where the storm was.
I think after being in such a period of el Nino weather many people have forgotten what a tropical summer/autumn is supposed to be like.
Stay safe FNQers.
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2006 03 19 at 05:14 PM • permalinkWell, it looks like it’s just making landfall. May it move swiftly over and away.
Posted by tree hugging sister on 2006 03 19 at 05:32 PM • permalinkThis is the Weather Underground page for Innisfail. (I’ve gotten addicted to their very VERY accurate forecasting and hour by hour format.)
Posted by tree hugging sister on 2006 03 19 at 05:38 PM • permalinkRight now, the Townsville radar shows Innisfail is in the eye of teh cyclone.
The Cairns radar isn’t showing much, possibly due to its close proximity to the storm.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2006 03 19 at 05:40 PM • permalinkThe Weather Underground update is also saying the winds are @ 115mph. That’s very good news, with a fair part of the storm already onshore.
Posted by tree hugging sister on 2006 03 19 at 05:50 PM • permalinkRe the “lack of media” before the storm struck - isn’t that something to be thankful for? All you get in advance of the storm hitting is airhead speculation and comparisons with the most extreme things the dopey media can can up with.
...like that effort re the Swedish tourist - she’s, what, 1100 km away?
I suspect local resources (community personal networks, radio) have been much more effective in dealing with the need for news - by those who really need it in advance - quite adequately.
Not (repeat, not) to under-play the seriousness of the situation, but there are many differences between Larry and (say) the situation in New Orleans, eg population density (low Vs high) and topography (medium Vs negative).
I predict physical devastation followed by an orderly rescue and clean up effort; John Howard goes in & offers big wads of Federal cash; media finds a few cases of idiots who ignored common sense & got themselves in trouble & sensationalises them etc etc.
The left will wail more about damage to the Great Barrier Reef than any damage to people.
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 03 19 at 06:01 PM • permalinkI dunno, S.C.D. - when was the last time Aus got hit by a Cat 5?
I do agree on the left’s reaction. Unless it’s really bad - in which case they’ll blame it on John Howard - and still wail more about the Great Barrier Reef.
(Some of them were wailing about the coral reefs around Phuket, Thailand shortly after the tsunami… probably other places too, but I used to live in Phuket so I know about that one.)
Rush transcript up at http://www.cyclonelarryaftermath.blogspot.com of report from Channel 7, live from inside Innisfail, in the eye of the storm :
(rush transcript) - “Terrifying…total destruction…roof is gone, standing in water up to my ankles at the moment…in a church…I’m on my own…a tree has just fallen on a house….streetlight touching the ground….the destruction is frightening….we’ve been through the eye….but it’s just come back with a vengeance….it is just full on…this is scary stuff….I hate to see what the destruction is going to be when it’s finished….you can’t see much, it’s that blowey…all you can see is a grey sheet of water horizontal to the ground and it’s taking everything in its path….everything….it’s the worst we’ve ever seen….to be in it….nothing gives me the willies, I don’t get scared much, but this enough to scare any man…”
Just reported on 7 that every tree in Innisfail is down, with many either having fallen through homes, or torn completely from the ground and thrown into buildings.
Posted by LeftieLatteLover on 2006 03 19 at 06:23 PM • permalink#57, the only talk of “blaming Howard” so far, regardless of the context, is coming from people like your good self. Pre-emptive strike on blame-gaming?
Posted by LeftieLatteLover on 2006 03 19 at 06:49 PM • permalinkG’day Kathy K. Frankly not sure about Oz & Cat 5 storms. Certainly nothing to compare with US East Coast in ‘05 for quite some time - maybe Cyclone Tracy, mentioned previously? But again, its hard to compare the impact on communities of storms in the 2 localities - north Australia is on the whole not heavily populated COMPARED to the US Gulf Coast. But hey, when you are hanging on for dear life in the teeth of it, who cares if there are 2 million others in the same boat, or only you?
Point I was making is that the fact that many haven’t found news on the impending cyclone in the 24hrs to Monday Morning EDT 1) Doesn’t mean that those who need to know haven’t been informed, most likely via local sources and 2) Its not necessarily a bad thing if the national / international media have been caught a bit on the hop. Preview shock and awe is useless.
For all criticism of the (national broadcaster) ABC here (not the least by me), they do a very good job in times of emergency, especially on their local radio networks around the country.
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 03 19 at 07:08 PM • permalinkOf course, the lefties might NOT play the political card on this.
I’m drafting my apology right now, you betcha.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 03 19 at 07:08 PM • permalinkLLL
Several idiots had letters published in the SMH and The Age which blamed the Canberra bushfires on George W Bush. There were also many callers on ABC talkback who maintained that Bush’s failure to sign Kyoto caused the fires. There are plenty of people in this country who don’t think twice about being intellectually dishonest if it enables them to take a potshot at Bush or Howard.
Since we established that Howard was behind Tim’s-crooked-sandwich-gate, this does not seem unreasonable to me.
However, it may be unfair to totally blame Howard for the cyclone when clearly Bush and the Jews must share some of the culpability.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 03 19 at 07:19 PM • permalinkBananas Update : At least two major banana farms outside of Innisfail have been completely levelled by the cyclone. At least 30 people have lost their jobs and the two farms, cited on ABC Farn North Queensland radio reports, are not expected to get back up to normal banana production for 12 to 18 months.
Posted by LeftieLatteLover on 2006 03 19 at 07:19 PM • permalinkG’Day, Stop Continental Drift! (Great nickname there… Gives me a chuckle every time I see it)
I agree on the local/national thing - that’s true in the States as well - I certainly pay no attention to the national weather news when a hurricane is headed this way. I listen local. Their lives are on the line too - and they get it right.
But I do think national news could at least do enough coverage so people don’t wake up to reports of devestation when they never even heard a cyclone was headed that way.
Kimble LOL
OK, LLL, I was wrong. They’ll blame Bush instead.
LLL - With winds like that, anything outside takes a lot of damage - especially plants. Though many recover amazingly fast - I’m hoping they aren’t as flattened as it looks now. Plants can surprise you with how fast they recover though any crop that was growing when it hit is probably lost. And bananas take about 9 months to mature.
#57, #64, #55, I blame God, or Satan, or Menoch…no wait, it was Joh! The vengeful spirit of Sir Joh, “Where’s my national monument? And don’t you worry about that.”
No need to panic over Cyclone Larry’s shadow, Cyclone Wadi, just yet. It’s 2000kms off Queensland, slowly boiling into a Cat 3, maybe, over the next 48 hours.
No storm surge hit Cairns. British and German backpackers to return to heavy drinking and shouting along to The Streets by 2pm.
Posted by LeftieLatteLover on 2006 03 19 at 07:34 PM • permalinkFruit of mash destruction!
Can you imagine what a ripe banana, propelled at c300 kmph could do to a person? And of course its cunning design means that hiding behind a wall won’t protect you - being curved, it’ll hurtle in on a curved trajectory. One moment you are hunkered down, thinking you are safe, then, out of the corner of your eye you see a yellow blur arcing around the corner of the structure - then MASHO! right between the eyes.
Why didn’t the government warn them about this horrible consequence of
global warming climate change?Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 03 19 at 07:45 PM • permalink74 Stop Continental Drift!
MASHO
EUREKA!
I was toying with a name or two for my new concoction, with ice cream and beeenanas, chopped nuts, drizzled with chocolate and caramel sauces. Split was right in there to the end…but the MASHO, solved that….Thanks.
By the way, if you are in Larry’s path, WHY are you still in Larry’s path? Y’all be safe down there.
BANANAS UPDATE 2 : Queensland MP Bob Kater was just on Channel Seven with an update on Australia’s banana stocks post-Larry.
It’s all bad news. Kater reckons up to 95% of banana crops in and around Innisfail may have been destroyed, he estimated losses of around $150 million to the industry.
Sugar, vegetable and fruit farms hit hard, possible loss of thousands of jobs, for both locals and the all important backpackers.
Backpackers would find jobs on the farms, drink up most of their wages in the local pubs and back in Cairns, thereby pumping a big slice of their wages back into the local economy.
Bad, bad news, for farmers and banana lovers alike.
Posted by LeftieLatteLover on 2006 03 19 at 08:03 PM • permalinkI find it very hard to listen to anything Bob Katter has to say. As the Texans say, big hat, no cattle.
The local Banana industry is worth about $300 million per year, sugar cane around $110 million, and papaya makes a bit of cash, but not really noticible unless you are the papaya growers. Most tourism money goes to Cairns (although the backpakers are essential to the banana industry).
Bananas will be out in any significant way for at least twelve months. For once I would guesstimate that Mad Bob may be fairly right about something for once, although I personally would put it at $100 million. ( not all losses will be local). This is also where the big impact on local employment will be felt.
There will simply be hardly any bananas available in a month or so. Big opportunity for the growers in South east Qld and Northern NSW for better prices, who have been mostly put out of business by the Innisfail growers.
Can’t do anything about supply though. Maybe we should allow imports eh :)
Sugar will suffer, but will probably produce some sort of yield when it comes to harvest in July-Oct. It is not a big employer compared with bananas, except when the mills start up later in the year.
MSM note: Cyclone Larry is now front and center on CNN.com (both US and International).
Also: “A TOLL free hotline has been set up for people concerned about friends and relatives in Queensland’s cyclone hit far north.
The Police Assistance Line can help people inquiring about those evacuated from affected areas, police said.
The number is 1800 100 188.”
Is Halliburton in the banana-growing market?
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 03 19 at 08:51 PM • permalinkQueensland has a very efficientEmergency Service (mostly volunteer)- my old man was one of the founders. My contacts further up the coast reckon it’s been pretty wild, with the eye going over Innisfail at about 7AM just before high tide- lots of trees going sideways and local flooding; wind gusts up to near 300kph have been recorded.
After Althea gave Townsville a touch-up in the ‘70s local building codes were bumped up and most houses are pretty durable now, but that doesn’t help with a storm surge.
The rain won’t bother Innisfail and Tully much, as they get metres of the stuff every year.
The two morning retards on Yoof network JJJ thought it was all hilarious, asking locals if any cows were flying by and other inanities, and showing the wilful pig-ignorance of inner-urban southerners to such calamities; I’m sure they’ll find it hilarious when the casualty figures come in.
Fuckwits.Can you imagine what a ripe banana, propelled at c300 kmph could do to a person?
Especially if it’s wearing a hat like this.
Do you guys get the show Invasion down there yet? Be very careful around your northern Queenslanders after this storm. Very, very careful.
Hang tough, Ozzies.
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 03 19 at 09:01 PM • permalink#47- try about 2000kms. #40- you’re right- the corialis effect makes cyclones rotate in the opposite direction to hurricanes. the worst will be happeneing now, as the wind will switch to the SE and drive the tide even higher.
The size of the storm is a mitigating factor- while it has a high windspeed rating, it’s more spread out. Tracey wiped out Darwin because it was so intense and compact; the place looked like Hiroshima afterwards. Some frinds of mine only had their downstaird dunny still standing, and their skiboat was wedged through a wall two blocks away.
It’s been a while, but large cyclones used to be an annual event in central and north Qld, and the locals are pretty used to them- not so much the tourists though.
Never heard of or encountered any looting/gouging etc- not in the nature of Queenslanders (except when dealing with furriners an’ southerners).Of course bananas contain radioactive potassium with one form having a half life of 1.25 billion years.
There could be tonnes of this radioactive stuff just lying around. By my calculations, the full effects of this disaster might not truly be known until roughly 1,250,002,006 AD or perhaps later.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 03 19 at 09:22 PM • permalinkThere could be tonnes of this radioactive stuff just lying around. By my calculations, the full effects of this disaster might not truly be known until roughly 1,250,002,006 AD or perhaps later.
And we are concerned with Iran. They are child’s play.
And I didn’t know this, at least not until now.
Since the population density and geography are more favorable than the situation in New Orleans, we won’t see the same chaos afterward. So, we’ll be treated to a lot of left-wing anti-American crowing about how stupid AmeriKKKa couldn’t hack it. But whatever does go wrong will be blamed on Howard. It’s win-win for the leftards.
Those are depleted bananas.
There’s an odd economic effect, incidentally, that imported fruit is of much higher quality than the local stuff.
The reason being that nobody pays much for bruised fruit, and so bruised fruit won’t pay the transport, and is not transported, but is sold where it’s grown. It takes a really top-notch banana to command the price needed to cover import costs, and so those are the ones that wind up on the other side of the world in some pricy marketplace.
So if you want the best bananas, go where they’re scarce
If the crocs eat the radioactive bananas, it’s all over
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 03 19 at 09:43 PM • permalinkForget Howard or Bush, Condi’s to blame. Tim’s erstwhile RWDB co-commentator Imre Salusinszky was on to it last week:
SPEND a day in close proximity to Condoleezza Rice and Neil Young’s best line, “You are like a hurricane, there’s calm in your eye”, comes to mind.
Condi whipped up a right hurricane of meetings, press conferences, circling helicopters, 17-car-strong motorcades and, of course, the compulsory protests in Sydney yesterday.
It’s a good
read.With a storm of this magnitude, the people in the path and surrounding areas will be changed for a damn long while, if not forever.
I believe Katrina touched something like 90,000 square miles. I’m assuming that the population in our 90,000 sq. mile area is much greater then the area of devastation which Larry is/will effect.
BUT make no mistake, if you Aussies have forgotten what these can do, as we did here, unfortunately you are about to find out, as we did here with the several that struck in a short period of time…Katrina being the real kick in the ass.
Only thing you can do, is praise a higher power (Mother Nature should do) and pass the ammo.
Just spoke to a client at Ayr, about 300kms south of Innisfail and it’s blowing like buggery there; their depot in Innisfail is totalled, their Cairns depot’s lost a few roller doors and the yard at Tolga on the Atherton Tableland is getting 160kph (100mph) gusts- a fair way inland.
Locals are concerned that the way the bloody thing is motoring it’ll head into the Gulf and re-generate, then wheel back or go over Arnhem Land and wipe out Gove.
Expect much weeping and wailing from the usual suspects, as the most likely fatalities and casualties will be among remote Aboriginal communities; the feds have the army on standby out of Lavarack in Townsville, where there’s a Blackhawk detachment and sappers.
Assorted ferals will bemoan damage to the reef, but it is in fact a major mitigating factor with these storms, breaking up the big ocean swell. The only time the local seaweeds got to go surfing in Rockhampton when I was a sprog there was when there was a cyclone, otherwise no surf.
BTW- crocodile farms are not the best place to be in a storm surge- a bloke the old boy knew in FNQ was running one near the Edward River and spent a couple of days camped on top of the water tank, fending off curious/peckish lizards with a hammer.
Webdiary will be reporting on this any day now.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 03 19 at 10:32 PM • permalinkThat’s why the experienced award-winning team from Webdiary are number one for weblogs
They are pioneers of the medium who understand how blogs bring immediacy that you just won’t get anywhere else.
When I want all the news and analysis - and I’m in no particular hurry about it - I turn to Webdiary.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 03 19 at 10:53 PM • permalinkI remember a thunderbirds episode where they had to rescue a bunch of lab technicians from the lousiana swamp lab where they had injected? the local alligators with some radioactive? material. They grew extra large, and attacked buildings!. And the bad guy got eaten in the end.
They don’t make ‘em like that anymore.
Latest word is that 1 in 3 houses in innisfail are totalled, with half the rest at least missing roof material.
The SES is going to be mighty busy up there for a few days- no word about looking for tarps etc yet.
I’ve got a 20’ box going up there later this week, if they want anything sent up I’ll be organising some space in it.
#98 Habib,
...spent a couple of days camped on top of the water tank, fending off curious/peckish lizards with a hammer.
ROTFLMAO! I know a storm of this magnitude is no laughing matter, but that’s farkin’ hilarious.
Imagine if they’d been radioactive?
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2006 03 19 at 11:07 PM • permalinkentropy
They don’t make ‘em like that anymore.
Nope they don’t. Now all we have is chickenshit actors, playing fake characters acting as if they are real people, saving the world, from non existent savages (in their wee minds)....and doing it badly.
We need to drop about 1000 of those radioactive crocs, into hollywood. Hey clooney here’s an oscar for ya…LOL.
heh, I have heard Innisfail referred to as many things before, but never, as CNN appears to believe as a beach resort.
My kid is in Innisfail and just rang to say all is well with him and his menagerie. Reckons the area is flattened with trees all prone. One coconut , fully laden is across their shed so they are looking forward to a feed .
They spent the night in a small bathroom with mattresses and three smelly dogs. Fun.I feel for the folks in the path. I was in the path of Katrina. The worst winds will be just outside of the eyewall on the SW (S hemisphere). It is surprising how well modern construction holds up to wind alone. It doesn’t sound like the storm surge will be real bad unless it is common to build very low (like here). They are going to need plenty of chainsaws because the downed trees block roads and squash houses. It is also pretty miserable without power for A/C and water.
Croc, Snake Warning
Cyclone Downgraded to Cat 3
First Reports from Innisfall* Approx 6 inches rain in 2 hours
* Hospital severely damaged, no injuries though
* 290 km/h winds
* Roads blocked, most trees downJohnstone Shire Mayor Neil Clarke said there had been widespread structural damage to houses and other buildings.
He said the first task would be to clear the road to the airport and the runway.
“That will allow emergency services and Department of Defence personnel to start moving in and assisting us,” he said.
Councillor Clarke said the town’s water pumps had stopped and was warning residents it might be several days before electricity was restored
....
The Cyclone Warning Centre is searching the historical records but cyclone Larry could go down as the worst system to hit a populated area in Queensland.The warning centre’s Mike Bergin said cyclone Ingrid, which crossed the coast south of Lockhart River last year, was also a category five but did not cause much damage.
“For a cyclone like this in a populated area, we’ve got to go back,” he said.
“Well certainly Althea was a category four back in 1971, but we’ve really go to go back a long way in the record books to find something of this intensity.
“Maybe it was the last Innisfail one back in the early part of the last century.”
Emergency numbers
NUMBERS WITHIN AUSTRALIA
Police Assistance Line: 1800 100 188
Dept of Communities Assistance Line: 1800 440 074We’ll be right. Australia’s a beaut place, we just have these things happen sometimes. Cyclones, Firestorms, whatever. We have organisations in place to deal with them, and our real strength is the emergency services at the local level, to deal with crises in the first 24-48 hours before relief starts coming in. It takes at least that long to assess what’s needed most urgently.
Thanks to everyone overseas who’s offered to help, and yes, we’d be glad to accept anything and everything. We’d do, and have done, the same for you, it’s what mates do for one another.
At least it didn’t hang about - straight up and over the Atherton Tablelands. It should lose strength quickly if it stays on that course.
We need to drop about 1000 of those radioactive crocs, into hollywood. Hey clooney here’s an oscar for ya…LOL.
El Cid — Hell, no need to traumatize the crocs by dropping them. Sharon Stone can probably talk the actors into jumping into the pit.
Hell, it worked with her hubby…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 03 20 at 12:27 AM • permalinkFiji weather bureau has classified the second weather system as Tropical Cyclone Wati, which this morning was coming close to the 160.0"S parallel, which I believe makes it Brisbane’s responsibility.
Wati is expected to follow a similiar course to Larry, but make landfall several hundred kilometres to the south, between Mackay and Rockhampton.
For more details, Weatherzone’s excellent forum has a thread for Larry and Wati.
At least Beatty is no Nagin. he has allready called Howard and the army is apparently going in not long after the winds stop.
That was on the Sky news anyway.
Ill be rather happy if there are no deaths in this one, bugger the damage. (harsh but gotta have your priorities)Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2006 03 20 at 01:17 AM • permalink#60 the howard blaming is already being set up by the lefty media, you complete & utter wanker
JOURNALIST:
And what’s the latest?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it’s no better than, frankly no more complicated or detailed, than what is on the media. The media on occasions such as this are very much across the detail of the situation. I don’t have any insights that aren’t available and nor should I. As soon as information is available everybody should have it because it’s the people there whose lives and property are at risk. But I am being provided with regular updates. I don’t want to bore you with the bureaucratic details, but all the machinery that exists for cooperation at a State and Federal level has already been activated and I’ll continue to be in touch with the Queensland Premier. And as I say any help that is needed from the federal level, additional help will be made available.
JOURNALIST:
Do you believe Australia generally and Queensland in particular was prepared for this?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well you are never totally prepared for something like this. But I am impressed that people have already been evacuated, they have been evacuated.some of them yesterday afternoon and that arrangements were in place. I don’t think any community is ever totally prepared but Australians are very good at responding to these things because everybody pitches in without restraint and without any kind of holding back to help-we all help each other-and I’m quite certain that that egalitarian co-operation which has served this country well on other occasions will operate again on this occasion.
JOURNALIST:
What precise resources is the Federal Government making available?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well they may need helicopters for example, military helicopters. They may need water purification equipment-depending on the extent of the damage. The water purification equipment that the ADF had worked incredibly well in Aceh. Now I’m not comparing it with that, I’m simply drawing on that experience to make the point that our ADF has a lot of practical equipment available. Now it may not get, I hope it doesn’t get to that situation. But I’m making the point that we have got that sort of material.JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard have you thought about travelling up. I know you’ve got a busy week (inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER:
Look I think the important thing at the moment is to let the experts deal with the situation and sort of not get in the way. I mean obviously I will do what is appropriate at the appropriate time.
JOURNALIST:
Are you confident that we’re not going to have a New Orleans type situation here?
PRIME MINISTER:
Very confident. I mean there’s very close co-operation between the Commonwealth and the States. We might bicker and quarrel on some issues, but when it comes to responding to things like this, Commonwealth- State machinery works extremely well-and so it should. There is no occasion on an event like this, there’s no occasion for people to do otherwise.it’s about time the troll LLL was eradicated.
#125, Well that was just plain rude, and SEVEN HOURS too late. And such insults after I stayed up all night long posting any information I could find, right here, to help keep the TBers as informed as possible.
KK, you obviously have no sense of irony, as the LLL choice of moniker is way beyond your dim abilities of comprehension.
Another Category Five Cyclone Warning has now gone into effect, and it’s for the superstorm blowing straight the void inside KK’s head. Rrrowrr!
———————————
Congratulations Queenslanders, you survived the biggest of the baddest that that slag whore Gaia could throw at you. Rock on. We’re proud of you.
Posted by LeftieLatteLover on 2006 03 20 at 01:57 AM • permalinkJOURNALIST:
Are you confident that we’re not going to have a New Orleans type situation here?Who knew that Australia also has a city with a population of 550,000 people living in an area that was well below sea-level and is surrounded on all four sides by major bodies of water and is governed by one of the worst city governments in the nation and is located in the most corrupt state.
Hmm, who knew?
Posted by David Crawford on 2006 03 20 at 02:10 AM • permalinkGood news is that as of 4.30pm local time, about 8 hours after Larry made landfall there are no reports of injuries or fatalities.
Early days I admit, but since Premier Pete is on his way up there, I think the situation is under control.
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2006 03 20 at 02:32 AM • permalink#129, you poor thing, you still don’t get it…here, have a biscuit. Oh well, maybe next time around you will granted greater gifts of perception, and humour.
‘Complete and utter (wanker)?’ Can you say redundant?
Reeeee-dundant.
Hmm, now it seems to be getting back to normal around here, there was just far too much caring and sharing for a few hours there.
————————
CYCLONE INJURIES : Report just on radio stating there have been NO SERIOUS INJURIES reported so far. No Serious Injuries Reported So Far. Amazing.
How bloody tough are Aussies?
“Cat 5, mate? Yeah, big deal. We’ll be right.”
Posted by LeftieLatteLover on 2006 03 20 at 02:35 AM • permalinkAlthough not typically a fan of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, I will credit the local reporters doing a sensational job on their patch.
Gallery of pictures from the ABC FNQ web site
The biggest damage in the region, I believe, is economic. Primary producers are the hardest hit.
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2006 03 20 at 02:38 AM • permalinkGotta agree with you LLL.
How bloody tough are Aussies?
Bloody tough.
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2006 03 20 at 02:42 AM • permalinkFrom the ABC
The Cyclone Warning Centre is searching the historical records but cyclone Larry could go down as the worst system to hit a populated area in Queensland.
The warning centre’s Mike Bergin said cyclone Ingrid, which crossed the coast south of Lockhart River last year, was also a category five but did not cause much damage.
“For a cyclone like this in a populated area, we’ve got to go back,” he said.
“Well certainly Althea was a category four back in 1971, but we’ve really go to go back a long way in the record books to find something of this intensity.
“Maybe it was the last Innisfail one back in the early part of the last century.”
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2006 03 20 at 03:03 AM • permalinkDamage Assessment Continuing and First Relief is on its way:
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie says authorities in Innisfail are trying to clear the local showground for a helicopter landing site.
Emergency services personnel are travelling from Cairns and Townsville to help residents.
Up to 1,000 SES volunteers are on standby in Queensland to assist with the clean up after cyclone Larry.
Disaster coordinator Wayne Coutts says volunteers are expected to move into affected areas once the power supply has been secured.
“We have SES teams locally and the fire department as well. We also have teams on standby throughout the region and outside the region if it becomes necessary to assist in that area,” he said.
He says people who sheltered last night at evacuation points are being encouraged to return to their homes to assess the damage.
Premier Beattie says he and as many ministers as possible will travel to the region as soon as they can and he would like the Prime Minister to visit as well.
He says generators are being dispatched along with 2,000 tarpaulins from Brisbane.
“There’s been an enormous amount of damage and we are focussing on infrastructure, to get it restored as quickly as possible,” he said.
“To the best of our knowledge water is still operating effectively in Innisfail as well as sewerage.
“The problem relates to energy and because of a major cable going down we have huge problems, but we’ll address it.
“It’ll take days, it won’t happen overnight. We’ll try and get generators in to do it as quickly as we possibly can so the cable can be repaired.”
Just as a remark from a sorta kinda professional disaster relief logistician : Louisiana/New Orleans should be compared to the state of Mississippi which was hit worse. In both cases the Federal Govt did a very good job. FEMA wasn’t perfect, but the military picked up the slack. Mississippi did so well it never made the news despite far worse destruction, the difference was the local and state governments.
Look, the wheels could still fall off the disaster relief efforts in FNQ. A second cyclone so close to the first means we may have to delay sending gear there, and re-evacuate. But the professionals seem to be handling it as planned.
What the media circus does or doesn’t say is another matter, but they’re irrelevant.
Surprising how many moments of humour there were to be found during the past 24 hours of television coverage. Most of it came from the journalists as they asked rapid-fire, rush-rush questions of Queenslanders, who kept right on talking at their normal, relaxed pace.
Now, this is certainly no criticism. The reduced pace of life, and the slowly brewing wanders of a good long Queenslander convo, was one of the best parts of spending a month “out behind” Cairns on the Atherton Tablelands last February.
“Sydney, ay? Geez, you know you lot are only rushing headlong to your own bloody deaths moving that fast, don’t you?”
I’d never thought about it like before.
Very funny moments this morning of watching Kochie and Mel on Channel Seven’s Sunrise trying to rush elderly Queensland gentlemen they had reached on the phone to the conclusion of their Cat 5 storm survival stories. Obviously Kochie and Mel were looking for a twenty second, or less, summary….they didn’t get that, from anyone!
“I’m 80 years old, David. And I’ve seen the worst of the worst storms….that have ever…come to this….area…and I’ll reckon right now….that this…was….the biggest…bloody…can I say….bloody? Blood troppo storm we’ve ever had…The biggest one…before then…was back….in 1971…nah….‘72 it was, yeah, Davey Blackburn had his pineapple farm going great guns then….yeah, he was still married to….Laura…yeah, Laura….easy on the eyes, mate, David, I’ll tell you, mate….”
In the end, Kochie and Mel just started talking over the callers, trying to whip thorugh as many eyewitness reports as they could, and this gave the unfortunate impression they were being disrespectful to these cyclone surviving Queenslanders. No doubt that wasn’t the intention.
Atherton, Cairns, Innisfail, Cape Tribulation are surely some of the most beautiful parts of this country, if not the world, and the people there make you feel welcome simply by not giving a stuff about who you are or where you’re from.
Keep North Queensland in mind when it comes to how you spend your holiday dollars this year. The locals up there are going to need all the business they can get.
Posted by LeftieLatteLover on 2006 03 20 at 03:48 AM • permalinkReuters, showing it’s right up to date on Australian geography, advises that,
There were no reports of any damage to Australia’s offshore oil and gas fields, which are located off the west coast, officials said…
Yeah…right. I suppose this pathetic bunch reported that there were no reports of damage to Seattle from Katrina.
Posted by walterplinge on 2006 03 20 at 06:22 AM • permalinkThanks El Cid! “Canberrans” is fine but “Chardonnay socialists” fits the bill just as well.
Posted by Art Vandelay on 2006 03 20 at 08:27 AM • permalinkIts amazing there was not one fatality. An ABC reporter said this morning on AM that it was very dangerous recharging his mobile phone battery.
He said he sprinted 50 metres to his car. How dumb is that!! Could have been a great candidate for the Darwin awards - running headlong into a blender.
He now has an opportunity to give his progeny a second chance.
ArtVandelay
“Chardonnay socialists”...ahhh, gotcha. You Oz’people make great wine so…the Chardonnay is great…If your ‘socialists’ are like ours…the finest liquor, beer or wine ever made, couldn’t fix the fact that their mouths overload their asses…all the time, everytime…:).
And got the Correction…Canberrans…thanks.
I think most of Oz, thinks highly of Greg Norman…He finished an ‘uppity’ (who knows maybe our own “Chardonnay socialists” play there) Golf course and home development (homes still being constructed) in my part of Northwest Florida. Shark’s Tooth
Can’t get on unless you own…even if one could play off the street…one look at my clubs…I’d be gone…:).
Spot on El Cid! For a US version of a “chardonnay socialist” just think John Kerry: a rich hypocrite ;)
Posted by Art Vandelay on 2006 03 20 at 09:12 AM • permalinkEspecially seeing as many pubs were offering 2 for 1 during the eye- bloody tempting to risk getting sliced in two by a piece of galvanised iron for cheap piss.
It’s a classic re-affirmation of the old adage that if something nasty is going to happen, it’s best to be blotto- most residents of the north of my state would have still been bladdered from the cowboys game, and would have blearily remarked as the roof went “fuckin’ possums, on the razz again.”
El Cid - many of we Canberrans are into the Chardonnay - well, with over 20 really world-class vineyards in the area, one about a kilometre away from my place - we’d be dills not to be.
Though some of the local Merlots are better.
As for Socialists, not all of us. There is a thriving Underground here, catering to the tiny and oppressed neocon minority. See Tex of Whacking Day, for example.
Move over, Grant D weatherman, we’ve got Tim.
His new slogan.. Is the weather getting windy ask timby.
Posted by doleblogger on 2006 03 20 at 10:45 PM • permalinkSpot on Doleb
Tim-may acts like this is his blog and will post just about anything without even so much as a committee meeting.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 03 21 at 05:54 AM • permalink149 from the Whacking Day link:
Thom Lyons
I think Thom Lyons - our favourite military fraud and Castro-loving Greenie dingbat - has wisely decided to shut his stupid lying mouth once and for all.
He hasn’t been seen on Usenet since Feb 3, and his legal-aid funded legal threats have amounted to nothing, even though I’ve not removed any material from my website about him.
I think we’ve finally seen the last of him. He won’t be missed.Not sure if this ruins my day or not.
Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 03 21 at 12:33 PM • permalinkSo you’re doing weather now. Guess you’re a self-appointed expert at just about anything. Like why would anyone needing reliable information on a cyclone go searching for the latest on the blogmire?
Posted by Miranda Divide on 2006 03 23 at 01:53 PM • permalinkGosh Moronda, if that’s not why you’re here, why ARE you here?
Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 03 23 at 06:52 PM • permalink
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Mena says no one at her hostel has told her how to prepare for a cyclone.
Oh. Dear. God. All of us here on the Gulf Coast are shivering with repressed memories and hope Larry takes a quick turn for the better with all our hearts. It can happen. In the meantime, the ‘minimal Larry news’ is unconscionable. If you ignore it, it won’t come? God, if only it worked that way.