THE PREMIER of the Australian state of Queensland, Anna Bligh, last night warned residents they must be prepared to wake up to scenes of destruction after tropical cyclone Yasi made landfall.
“Without doubt we are set to encounter scenes of devastation and heartbreak on an unprecedented scale,” she said.
“This cyclone is like nothing we have ever dealt with before as a nation.”
Up to 30,000 people were evacuated from homes in Yasi’s path over the past two days. Evacuation centres, such as shopping malls, were filled by those with nowhere else to go.
Yasi made landfall near Mission Beach in north Queensland just before midnight local time (2pm Irish time), bringing destructive winds of about 290km/h.
The town is about 50km south of Innisfail, which was devastated by cyclone Larry five years ago.
Police inspector David Tucker, the region’s disaster co-ordinator, says there has been widespread destruction. Insp Tucker said the towns of Innisfail, Tully, Cardwell, Silkwood, El Arish and many other communities and coastal villages have been battered by the cyclone.
Insp Tucker said the full extent of the damage will not become clear until later today.
“We can certainly expect significant damage to a number of buildings, as to the extent of that we really don’t know at this point in time,” he said.
“We really need to keep an open mind and wait for daylight to break so that we can actually start to do a proper assessment.”
Mission Beach resident Nicky Smith told local media there were 10 people, including four children, in a room under her house. “It’s very noisy and uncomfortable,” she said.
“There have been a lot of bangs up there. We don’t know what’s going on. Water is coming through the windows. It’s coming under the door and through the windows. It’s not flooding, there’s just too much rain.”
As the night went on Yasi de-intensified as it moved inland, first to a category four cyclone and then to category three.
“At 5am, severe tropical cyclone Yasi, category three, was estimated to be 205km south southwest of Cairns and 130km west of Cardwell,” Australia’s bureau of meteorology said.
“Yasi is moving inland and weakening slowly, but remains a dangerous cyclone . . .
“The very destructive core, with gusts of up to 205km/h, is continuing to move inland west of Cardwell towards the Georgetown area,” it said.
Weather experts say the current La Nina conditions being experienced in the Pacific Ocean are the cause of cyclone Yasi. La Nina refers to abnormally cool Pacific temperatures. Its opposite, El Nino, results in a warmer Pacific.
“Landfalling tropical cyclones in Queensland are approximately five times more likely during La Nina conditions, as are presently occurring, than during El Nino,” said Dr Nicholas Klingaman, an expert on extreme tropical weather events, who has been working with the Queensland government.
“Nina also reduces wind shear, the change in the direction of the wind between the lower and upper portions of the atmosphere, which again favours tropical-cyclone development,” he said.