Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Good Morning
Well it's the morning after the night before. I slept through most of the night, in no small part due to only getting 4 hours the night before and coming down from a major caffeine high at around 10:00 pm. I was up for a bit around 1:00am and at that time it was pretty intense, probably a bit windier than I've seen. Most of the trees in between the two sets of buildings here are badly damaged, and a couple uprooted. No good info on damage elsewhere, but we certainly didn't get the worst of it. All I can do at the moment is chill out (no power yet, but cellphone coverage so internet), and wait for the authorities to say what's happening. I suspect/hope that they let us stay here another night so I have time to find a place to stay here in Townsville. Not particularly in the mood to go back to Port Douglas at the moment, and Cairns was not really very interesting. I'm sure there's diving schools here as well, but I wonder what the reef looks like after this storm.
6:30 pm
Pretty quiet, wind is picking up but not dramatic, and it's raining a fair bit. Not allowed to go wandering about though, they would get mad at us. Still have power, did some work and researching dive schools. I suspect it'll be a long and boring night, unless I can get some sleep which I probably need since I only had 4 hours last night.
It should be worst sometime during the night, which won't exactly make for good viewing conditions. Darn... It's already starting to get dark.
It should be worst sometime during the night, which won't exactly make for good viewing conditions. Darn... It's already starting to get dark.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Pep Talk #2
This one was by a lady running the evacuation center.
'I'm sure you all know how serious this is. You will be in lockdown starting at 2:30, meaning you will stay in your rooms until the police come around and tell you that you can come out. You will not drink or smoke in your rooms. You will not light candles.' Not an exact quote, but you get the gist of it. :)
Probably going to be fairly boring and really loud starting around 6 this evening (in 4 hours). They say it will be too loud to sleep due to the wind.
Gotta take care of a couple things to prepare for worst-case scenarios like a tree coming through the window. May or may not post again before power goes out, will see.
'I'm sure you all know how serious this is. You will be in lockdown starting at 2:30, meaning you will stay in your rooms until the police come around and tell you that you can come out. You will not drink or smoke in your rooms. You will not light candles.' Not an exact quote, but you get the gist of it. :)
Probably going to be fairly boring and really loud starting around 6 this evening (in 4 hours). They say it will be too loud to sleep due to the wind.
Gotta take care of a couple things to prepare for worst-case scenarios like a tree coming through the window. May or may not post again before power goes out, will see.
Pep Talk #1
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.
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.
We've made category 5
Yasi is now officially category 5. The forecast for Port Douglas (where we left last night) now calls for winds up to 280 km/h. I've never even driven that fast...
Breakfast starts in 15 minutes - they are even serving us food! And I hand-washed a couple of shirts cause I was out of laundry and don't want to reek for the next 3 days. Who knows when we lose power or for how long. No worries if I don't post for a day or 2 at some point - we are basically guaranteed to be without power for a while at some point! :)
Breakfast starts in 15 minutes - they are even serving us food! And I hand-washed a couple of shirts cause I was out of laundry and don't want to reek for the next 3 days. Who knows when we lose power or for how long. No worries if I don't post for a day or 2 at some point - we are basically guaranteed to be without power for a while at some point! :)
Townsville
Now in Townsville, some 400 km south of where I was 7 hours ago. They put us up in university dorms, quite nice. Will learn details tomorrow...
Almost ran out of gas on the way down - the bus driver said he went 150 km on empty, and could feel the engine almost giving out on the hills. But we're here! More fun times await.
Almost ran out of gas on the way down - the bus driver said he went 150 km on empty, and could feel the engine almost giving out on the hills. But we're here! More fun times await.
En route
Left port Douglas half an hour ago. Going through cairns (expected to hit as category 4) to townsville (expected to hit as category 2). About 400 km drive, it's 7:20 pm, and "Highway to Hell" is playing on the radio. Wooot, this is the most fun I've had in ages. :)
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