I can see that since I published this last Cyclone Yasi post there have been quite a few people googling for information on how they can stay safe in their homes, when and where the cyclone will hit, and more generally, updates on what's happening at ground level. So, here's an update from the Premier's Office which hopefully may answer a few of your questions. The info given earlier today said that even if the roof comes off the house that it is still safer inside, and that the smallest room will have the strongest structure against the winds. Apologies for all the Premier's state of emergency info, as other sources emerge I will try to update it.
This story has come from Townsville ten mins ago - details in it are a bit scant but it's still a good indication comms are still up although power is out to 90k houses.
The most recent tracking indicates the eye of the cyclone will cross the coast around the midnight time. The core of Cyclone Yasi will cross the coast from about 8pm onwards...
Anna Bligh 10:30pm (AEST) - "The destructive core, that is, the part of this cyclone that will have the winds of up to 280 - 300 kilometres an hour, spans a distance of about 150 kilometres. It is five times wider than the same core in Cyclone Larry.
Between about 830pm, about now, and just after midnight is going to be the roughest time for the people who are living with this event right now. The very early signs of this cyclone are now starting to be felt; we have significant power outages and reports of powerlines coming down. We also know that we are going to see very, very high storm surge activity.
"...late this afternoon in Townsville, the monitor recorded a maximum wave height at Point Cleveland off Townsville of 6.6 metres. This is the highest that has ever been recorded since measurements began in 1975. Similarly in Cardwell, we are planning for a storm surge of higher than seven metres over the high tide mark; Lucinda Beach, 4 metres and at Cairns around the 2.6 metre mark. These are extremely high levels of water that will come into those towns and inundate all those low lying areas at a very high level.
The high tide that we're looking at in about half an hours time will add to that storm surge but we will also see a high tide in this region around 930am tomorrow morning. It is expected to be quite a high tide and this storm system is so big that we will be experiencing residual effects of high powered winds still around that 930 time and later.
What that means is that we could see a second peak of storm surging in all of these areas during and after the high tide tomorrow morning. So if the winds have started to die down and people, quite naturally, will want to get out and see what has happened in their homes.
I can't stress enough that you may be putting yourselves in danger if you go out after this event too early. You cannot, we cannot eliminate the very high likelihood that there will be a second storm surge that will peak sometime around that high tide event tomorrow morning.
North Queensland itself has very little power generation. The overwhelming bulk of power generation for North Queensland comes out of Central Queensland. It is then transmitted by a spine of transmission towers that goes inland behind Townsville all the way to Cairns. It is then supplied through another spine of transmission towers that goes down the coast from Cairns, right down south of Mackay. In Cyclone Larry that coastal spine saw six transmission towers knocked out and that seriously disrupted power supply in that area. But Cyclone Larry was a category 4 event.
The inland transmission system has never been tested at a category 5 level. If the transmission lines on the inland spine are disrupted or brought down by this event, it would mean a catastrophic failure of the electricity supply system to the entire North and Far North of our state.
So...if it does happen we could see a failure of electricity supply that would extend potentially to many areas that have not been affected by this cyclonic event and it could extend for a prolonged period of time... we are planning for an aftermath that may see a catastrophic failure of essential services. We now have 37 000 people without electricity supply. That's because winds have brought down local powerlines, not because we've seen any transmission towers down. Almost half of that is in the Caldwell/Innisfail area.
"...this cyclone is expected to have a life of between two and three days. It is now tracking to cross Mt Isa as a category 1 cyclone sometime on Friday. Still tracking as a category 3 cyclone over the Atherton Tableland and into towns like Georgetown as a category 3 cyclone, 450 kilometres inland, early tomorrow morning. So we are still talking about a massive and intensifying event."
"... everybody who is now bunkering down in North and Far North Queensland will be starting to experience what they will be living with for the next four or five hours.... it will take all of their strength to endure what they are about to experience. I think it's difficult for us to imagine what it might be like to go through four or five hours of listening to 300 kilometre winds going around our homes, torrential rain and to be doing that in the dark and potentially without any communications. It will not only take all the strength of those enduring it, we as a community, as Queenslanders and as Australians need to brace ourselves for what we might find when we wake up tomorrow morning.
Without doubt we are set to encounter scenes of devastation and heartbreak on an unprecedented scale.This cyclone is like nothing that we have ever deal t with before as a nation... the next 24 hours I think are going to be very, very tough ones for everyone."
The Deputy Police Commissioner said the winds were rising, the streets were clear and that everyone was bunkered down, "it is too dangerous right now in all of those areas for our police crews and other emergency crews to go out. We are not yet receiving calls for assistance from the public related to the cyclone. It is eerily quiet in terms of that area of police operations. I don't expect that to last much longer as the cyclone encroaches on landfall. We are certainly thinking of all of the community and all of the emergency workers in the area right now."
This coverage came out about midnight (around 90 mins ago) and has the most up to date info on damage and the impact of the cyclone so far - it's estimated 90k houses have lost power. This story was published from AAP at Mission Beach around 20 mins ago, and it would seem that they are coping ok at this stage. Here is more recent footage of Yasi crossing the coast.
##UPDATE## Early reports from Townsville suggest that residents there have escaped the worst impact of the cyclone, official wind gusts measured at 220 kmph. Typical storm damage is being reported - roofs torn off, trees up-rooted, etc, although it is still too dangerous in the calm of the storm - in the 135 kmph winds, for emergency workers to assess damage or respond to requests for help. The weather bureau said that the tidal surge has not been as bad yet as anticipated, due to a receding tide at the time of the tidal surge which is countering the rise in water levels. 75% of Townsville residents have lost power. 10.5k residents are in Level 5 reinforced evac centres.