Background: The hostel in Port Douglas is (was?) run (but not owned) by a lovely couple and their dog. They are the ones who took the 14 people who were staying there to Townsville last night. We ended up at James Cook University, very solidly built, on high ground and far enough from the shore to avoid the 10 meter storm surge that is expected.
Pep talk:
So the couple that runs the hostel gave us a small pep talk this morning. The gist of it: The university is now an official evacuation center. The storm is expected to hit with winds up to 300 km/h, creating a 10 (ten) meter storm surge. We can expect to have a good 12 hours where going outside would be suicidal, but we won't see that high winds. Rainfall amounts up to 700 mm (0.7 meters) can be expected in some areas, probably not quite that much here. The major danger is getting caught by water (flooding or storm surge) and we're quite safe from that here. The last major cyclone was category 4 and "flattened everything" (except of course cyclone proof buildings such as where we are now). Expect to lose power sometime tonight, of course no idea for how long. That and they handed out water and chocolate bars. The people running the evacuation center will also try to put together a hot meal around 6, just before the storm really starts.
Went grocery shopping this morning (emergency rations are mostly not gluten free...). So I have food for a good 2-3 days, lots of water, and a nice place (my own private room - what a luxury!!!) to hide out in. Also figured out that one can use an electric kettle to boil eggs...
Expecting another larger pep talk soon, this time not from the hostel manager but from the people running the evacuation center.
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