UP TO 30,000 people were being evacuated last night as the Australian state of Queensland prepared for another natural disaster.
Following last month’s devastating floods in central and southeast Queensland – in which at least 35 people died – tropical Cyclone Yasi is expected to make landfall tonight or early tomorrow morning.
Residents in low-lying areas in the city of Cairns and its environs have been given until 8am today local time to evacuate their homes. People have been advised to find shelter with friends or family, but temporary evacuation centres have been set up for those without alternative accommodation.
Queensland premier Anna Bligh said Yasi – which is expected to be at least a category-four system with wind gusts of more than 250km/h (150mph) – posed a “very serious threat”.
“If you are contacted by emergency services or police and asked to relocate yourself and your family, please take this warning seriously,” Ms Bligh told residents. “This is a very significant and serious and potentially life-threatening cyclone.”
Bureau of meteorology senior forecaster Ann Farrell, who formerly worked with Met Éireann, said the latest modelling showed a direct hit on Cairns was “one of the more likely tracks” the cyclone will take.
Ms Farrell said by the time Yasi made landfall, it could be a category five cyclone. “It is possible it could reach category five intensity and that would push winds up to around the 300km/h mark,” she said.
More than 250 patients from two Cairns hospitals were being evacuated by plane to the Queensland capital Brisbane last night. The hospitals are situated on the waterfront and in danger of being inundated in the storm surge expected with the cyclone.
Aircraft from the Australian defence forces and the Royal Flying Doctor Service were modified to transport the patients.
Queensland’s chief health officer Jeannette Young said the state was well prepared for these situations.
“We do this every single day in Queensland. We’ve got a very big state and we move very sick patients around the state all the time,” she said.
Cairns resident Melissa Lovejoy told ABC radio she was fleeing the city.
“We just received a phone call and a text message that advised those in coastal low-lying areas, which is exactly where we’re living, to get out tonight,” she said.
“So we’re in the process of packing up boxes with essential and family heirloom-type things, the dogs and the pet snake and getting out of here.
“We’re going to a friend’s place who has a very substantial structure that’s a bit more inland from here . . . so we’re going to hunker down there,” she told the radio station.
Cairns mayor Val Schierlast night warned residents about the storm surge. “There hasn’t been a cylone of this size in anyone’s lifetime,” she said.
It is expected that Yasi will be even more powerful than Cyclone Larry, which devastated the north Queensland town of Innisfail in March 2006, killing one person and left nearly A$1 billion (€734 million) in damages in its wake.