Andrei.Hicks wrote on Feb 2^nd, 2011 at 11:10am:


Yeh I remember 'Althea' back in '72 well I remember my parents talking about it. 

Ours won't be a wind problem as much as a surge problem.

But Ill let your know tommorow, if I can.

.

Feb 2 (Reuters) - Australian police turned people away from jammed evacuation shelters on Wednesday as a huge cyclone neared the northeast coast, leaving many to wait outside in the open, praying police will relent and squeeze them in before the storm arrives.

Cyclone Yasi is the most dangerous cyclone to come ashore in Australia in a century, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes and overwhelm cyclone shelters which are already refuge to more than 10,000.

At a shopping centre which serves as a shelter in Cairns, a tourist city destined to feel Yasi's wrath within hours, Selwyn Hughes stood with his family in the uncovered carpark and said his only comfort for the moment was in numbers.

"There are so many of us here. Surely they have to do something, find somewhere safer to move us to before it arrives," Hughes said, squatting on a pink suitcase with his five children, aged two to 13.

The family's only possessions were a small box of food, including a tin of powdered milk, and clothes and a pram for two-year-old daughter Minoota.

Around them 80 others sat on the ground and shared advice or sympathy.

At a steel barrier gate, four police guarded entry to a ramp up to a cinema complex being used as a rooftop entry point to the makeshift cyclone shelter, as grey clouds swirled and winds whistled over fences and rooftops.

"It's making it very difficult. We're disappointed we can't take any more people in, but I've been through in there and it's just not safe," said acting police inspector John Bosnjak.

Inside, more than 2,000 people lay in front of shuttered shops and foodcourts, or sat on empty tables, while children played on moving walkways.

All seven evacuations centres set up in the region have reached capacity ahead of Yasi's arrival, filled also by hundreds of foreign backpackers sent away from usually thriving waterfront hostels.

Around 30,000 people in low-lying suburbs evacuated their homes and poured into the centres when doors opened at about 6 am, or bunkered down in the homes of friends at the urging of the government, helping ease the strain on shelters.

Others joined a stream of traffic heading south.

Cairns Mayor Val Schier advised residents to batten down in their own homes, while last-minute preparations were also being made to open an eighth shelter and move people there by bus.

The last category 5 cyclone to hit the Queensland coast was in 1918. That storm killed almost 90 people.

Link -
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/02/australia-cyclone-evacuation-idUSL3E7D...
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I earnestly hope that the relevant authorities communication skills improve, in a hell of a hurry, and these people & any others looking for shelter, can be accommodated, prior to the worse of this cyclone hitting, later today!

Our communications & delivery of services, need to be a lot better than this!

perceptions_now wrote on Feb 2^nd, 2011 at 3:50pm:


The communication problem in that article was one of deliberate sensationalist misrepresentation of the facts in the title and opening paragraph - which were belied by the penultimate one!

I, for one, wish that certain journalists would act more responsibly and respectfully!

The journalists duty is to reflect the feeling of those they are interviewing, not stifle public attitude, opinion, and or concern,  in order to pander to a certain dry sleeved politicians apparent mismanagement.

PC or not, these people are terrified.

And journalists are people too.

mellie wrote on Feb 2^nd, 2011 at 4:07pm:


Bollox! Terrified or not, they have a responsibility to present a balanced view of the facts known to them - and the title and opening paragraph did not represent the facts!

mellie wrote on Feb 2^nd, 2011 at 4:02pm:

I hope you are correct and this apparent hic-cup has been resolved, satisfactorily!

However, if they were just turned away, without the police communicating their problem to a higher authority and in turn arrangements being put in place for these people, then that would be very un-satisfactory!

Turning people away like this (however early) results in unnecessary anxiety, and if this is the way of it, then the public need to know.

Last minute arrangements rarely go off without a hitch and or mass-panic.

Perhaps our thoughtful politicians should bear this in mind.

mellie wrote on Feb 2^nd, 2011 at 4:25pm:


Notwithstanding that, according to an official news bulletin I watched earlier, only a couple? of these evacuation centres are actually rated as cyclone-proof (and therefore that people may well be safer bunkering down in their own homes) - it is clear that the author of the article was making mischief with the wording of the title and opening paragraph.

FFS, in the penultimate paragraph, the journalist specifically mentions that buses were already being organised to take people to a newly-opened shelter...

Moreover, there were earlier TV reports on ABC News 24 that specifically mentioned the contingency of opening additional centre/s, if required!