Tully and everywhere around is going to be a terrible mess:
YASI - the first tropical cyclone since 1918 to strike with the maximum intensity of category 5 - has slammed into the coast near Mission Beach midway between Innisfail and the evacuated town of Cardwell, 1500km north of Brisbane.
Tens of thousands of people were cowering in blacked-out homes and emergency shelters early today as the most savage cyclone to strike northern Australia in nearly a century unleashed 285km/h winds, ocean surges and destruction.
...Emergency services late last night received the first desperate call for help from a man and four other people, aged in their 60s, who were sheltering in a two-storey apartment building at Port Hinchinbrook, outside Cardwell, that was being engulfed by the storm surge. But there was nothing that could be done to help them because conditions were too dangerous.
"They have been told to go to the second floor and . . . bunker down. There is going to be a storm surge up to the top of the first storey and they are on the second storey," said Disaster Co-ordinator Ian Stewart .
...Ms Bligh warned record high seas were to be expected and that waves of 9.5m had been recorded off Townsville, the highest level since measurements began in 1975. Speaking a few hours before the cyclone was due to strike, the Premier warned the nation to brace for "devastation and heartbreak on an unprecedented scale".
Compounding this, the "central spine" of power transmission towers was at high risk, and she said there would be catastrophic electricity failure across north Queensland if they were brought down by the destructive winds.
..."We as as a community, as Queenslanders and Australians, need to brace ourselves for what we might find when we wake up. Without doubt we are set to discover scenes of devastation and heartbreak on an unprecedented scale," Ms Bligh said. "This cyclone is like nothing we have ever deal with before as a nation." With many people defying evacuation orders, despite the presence of soldiers and police, Mr Stewart warned that emergency services might not be able to reach them until the danger had passed.
"My message was simply that everyone has to be a first responder in these situations," Mr Stewart said.
...As Yasi advanced on the coast, the Bureau of Meteorology issued a tropical cyclone warning of unprecedented scale, covering 1100km of the coastline from Cape Flattery, north of Cooktown, to Sarina, south of Mackay.
Astonishingly, the warning also covered inland communities as distant as Mount Isa, 900km west of Townsville. While most cyclones quickly lose intensity once they cross the coast, Yasi was set to thunder on to hit the inland town of Georgetown, 380km west of Cairns, this morning, with category 3 winds of 90-125km/h.
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