Originally Posted by Pollyana (Post 8434670)

Crossing the coast now at Airlie Beach, apparently very eerie in the eye of it! Gusts of 205 km/hr have been recorded :scaredhair:

Most of the rain seems to be concentrateed in the southern part of the system, which isn't good news for Mackay........Nooooooo, not Framac and family again :eek:

Originally Posted by iamthecreaturefromuranus (Post 8435404)

I wonder if there will come a point in the future when parts of the North start to become uneconomic to live in as a result of climate change?

If you start getting hit by a Cat 5 and say three Cat 4's every season then its going to become a nightmare for people up that way.

Originally Posted by moneypenny20 (Post 8435635)

Climate change? Hasn't the top half of QLD always been hit by cyclones? Isn't it what tends to happen in the tropics?:confused:

Originally Posted by iamthecreaturefromuranus (Post 8435644)

Of course... but if the the climate is warming then those cyclones will get larger, stronger and more frequent as the years pass.

I would be surprised if the economy on North QLD could handle being hit by Cat 5's on a regular basis.

Originally Posted by moneypenny20 (Post 8435656)

Probably not but then I don't go with the climate change milarky anyway. Even this one ended up as a 2 or 3 on hitting land. Haven't had a 5 since Tracy in 1974. That's a fair old time period.

Originally Posted by scottishcelts (Post 8435578)

The Framac's all safe and well :thumbsup:

I spoke to them last night and today - still no power in Mackay and flood waters came close - but they are ok :thumbup:

Originally Posted by iamthecreaturefromuranus (Post 8435404)

I wonder if there will come a point in the future when parts of the North start to become uneconomic to live in as a result of climate change?

If you start getting hit by a Cat 5 and say three Cat 4's every season then its going to become a nightmare for people up that way.

Originally Posted by moneypenny20 (Post 8435656)

Probably not but then I don't go with the climate change milarky anyway. Even this one ended up as a 2 or 3 on hitting land. Haven't had a 5 since Tracy in 1974. That's a fair old time period.

Originally Posted by iamthecreaturefromuranus (Post 8435670)

I'm not convinced that climate change is man made either, but I'm reasonable convinced that the climate, globally, is warming. For the Tropics that's bad news as it will mean larger and more frequent storms.

As you said, this one was only a 3 when it hit land... but its still left 60,000 homes without power and widespread flooding. They may be used to that up there, but handling it on a more regular basis and with potentially larger storms on a regular basis as well, will surely become a big problem.

Originally Posted by BigH68 (Post 8435373)

missed us thankfully however thinking of the guys further up north, we had some wild winds around 3am, starting to pick up a bit again.......going to go out for a drive to see the huge waves....can hear the ocean from my hoose

Originally Posted by Pollyana (Post 8435790)

Thanks for that! Great news. The power companies did say they wouldn't even look at fixing stuff till it was safe to to go out, same as the SES, but at least they are OK :)



Its always been a part of life up there - especially the Far North. I used to find their attitude strange but now I can see why they are so laid back about it, they've always had the cyclone threat and in many communities they are also used to being flooded repeatedly, and to being cut off for weeks by floods. They make allowances t deal with it goo - look at whole communities with houses on stumps so the water an flow underneath.







I don't think it'll stop people living up there, but I do think some things need to change to make it less of an issue - power lines going underground instead of over, for example. also every cyclone that hits brings a lot of learning for all the agencies involved in response and recovery. Having worked through the Larry/Monica systems in 2006 I can see a lot of differences (for the better) in the preparations this time, including a lot of contingency plans that didn't have to be used, but it shows how much has been learnt, studied, revised and now tested.
One big learning curve really, the cyclones may well get more infrequent but more powerful, and that just means that our methods of dealing with them need to change.

Originally Posted by jimtrish (Post 8435897)

We certainly love living up here..but complacency is the one thing that I think will catch the locals out one day....We know we live in areas that the cyclones may come to, but we also know we have to be prepared and unfortunetly you still hear heaps of people saying 'it won't hit us'...
I think the alert systems have worked really well and certainly there was evidence of the emergency services being more prepared this time around.
I am just thankful that no-one was hurt and as you say Pol, we learn something new each time :)

Originally Posted by Bix (Post 8436214)

We hear a lot about them there cyclone things but they never affect us. :rolleyes:

Originally Posted by Bix (Post 8436214)

We hear a lot about them there cyclone things but they never affect us. :rolleyes:

Originally Posted by Pollyana (Post 8435792)

Phew, you got away with it :) Glad it missed you, bet the wind sounded a bit nasty though :scaredhair:

Originally Posted by Bix (Post 8436214)

We hear a lot about them there cyclone things but they never affect us. :rolleyes: