Spare some thoughts for the residents on North Queensland that are about to be hit by a category 5 cyclone, Yasi. For those who can remember we had the city of Darwin destroyed by Cyclone Tracy in 1974. The eye of this storm is bigger than the whole system that caused that devastation. It is 3-4 times bigger than Katrina which destroyed New Orleans. Winds are forecast up to 300 kph and expected to last over the area around Cairns for about 4 hours. On top of all the floods Queensland has suffered recently, they are expecting Yasi to dump between 700mm and 1 metre of rain in the next 4 days. To give some idea of the scale of this system, if it were centred over the US, it would virtually be coast to coast, and is the largest cyclone ever in this region. On top of all this, the tidal surge is expected to be up to 6 metres as well, so a lot of coastal properties don't stand a chance.
