Maps show cyclone Yasi is continental in size!
Satellite images of the category 5 storm over Queensland offer an opportunity to compare its magnitude visually. As a reference to the enormity of its reach the storm’s size would almost cover the United States, most of Asia and large parts of Europe. The eye itself, at 35km across, would stretch over all of the Katrina-ravaged city’s centre.
Less than a month after floods and mudslides hit Australia, Yasi, with winds of up to 285 km per hour hit the coast near the northeastern city of Cairns. The monster cyclone crossed the coast at Mission Beach, between Cairns and Townsville around midnight (AEST) the most powerful storm in the region since 1918.
More than 10,000 people evacuated the area and for those who stayed no fatalities have been reported thus far. Currently the cyclone has been downgraded to a category two system as it heads inland.
Cairns Councillor Alan Blake, the deputy chair of the local disaster management group, says it appears the city’s CBD has survived with very little damage. Despite the lack of structural damage an estimated 170,00 properties are without power across north Queensland and more could be cut off before the storm passes.
Much like the floods impacted Australia’s agricultural industry so to Yasi has dealt a devastating blow, wiping out banana plantations in far-north Queensland, which supplies 90 per cent of Australia’s production. Banana Growers Council president Cameron Mackay says the storm has destroyed his own plantation in Tully and the storm will put production back months.
