Cyclone Yasi

11:45am
Starting to hunker down (crossing coast about 10pm to midnight atm). They shut the uni yesterday and won't open for the rest of the week. I waited in a queue this morning to fill a can of petrol in case we need to use a generator. The windows are taped. The cameras, phones and computers are fully charged. Plenty of foood in the house, the gas camping stove and fuel is upstairs. My evacuation bag is packed except for my pillow. I have most of the yard cleaned, all the budgies are in cages under the house (If we have to go, I give them a tonne of food and water & hope they survive. Now I'm just waiting for dad to finish moving someone to another house and come home to tie down the last couple of things. The house gates are chained shut, front fence gates aren't yet.
We've just had our first band of rain & wind and I was still tidying so I'm now soaked.
I don't think we'll bother filling the bathtub with water till we've had showers but all my water bottles are full.

8pm
We still have power (I'm lotroing with the radio on). The tub is being filled as I type. Cardwell is completely empty - the whole town was evacuated today.

We've been getting txts on our phones from the emergency centre. Last night at 10:30pm we got one saying the low lying areas of townsville were being evacuated. Apparently they door-knocked and everyone affected had to be out by this morning. We are about 300m away from the worst case scenario flooding zone - and in a high set house so all we'll lose is cars and stuff under the house if its worse than that.

I may keep you updated but I expect we'll lose power tonight and not have access to it for 3-4 days.

2pm
Now I'm exhausted - we weren't as close to finished as I thought. The bush house is now full of miscellaneous potential missiles, my car is up the side of the house for more protection. The aviary has stuff in it that doesn't fit under the house. Dad said there was enough protection in it that as long as the cyclone doesn't change direction, my birds would have been fine...but if it did change direction I might have been trying to catch the birds in the dark during category 2+ winds. Anyhoo, now we are done. I also planted a gerbera in the front garden - what timing. The winds have picked up again but its only spitting.

3:05pm. My cousin in Ayr just lost power - Some parts of Ayr lost power earlier today. I think it might be a combination of left over cyclone Anthony damage and a less stable power supply. Windy here, not a lot of rain.

4:05pm Its getting gusty. We are having early showers so we can fill up the bath tub. Parts of Townsville are losing power. This may be my last post for some time if we lose power too. Mum's filling the hurricane lanterns & putting boiling water in thermos flasks. We have the radio on constantly now. I'm off to turn off un-needed stuff.

5:35pm
I still have power but its gusty and rainy - the forcast map says we are well into strong gale force winds - destructive winds should be here in an hour or so.

8:50pm
Power out in Kelso, northern beaches, west end. We still have power if you didn't guess. The winds are wild & whistling down the street. The trees are churning. Nothing has broken or flown through the air yet that I can see. Its really loud if you actually open a door or window (or go into the toilet where the window doesn't seal shut). I'm really sleepy, but I'm not sure its safe to sleep.

9:22pm
That last gust shook the house. Maybe its time to turn off the computer. We are in the destructive winds phase and will be for hours now