The sate of Queensland over here in Oz has been knocked around with devastating floods over the past few weeks & now last night was hit with a category 5 cyclone on the northern part of Queensland & that's right where our wise friend lives in Cairns.

I sent him a PM early yesterday but he hasn't opened it yet but I guess he has been a little busy keeping his head down.

The cyclone crossed the coast around midnight last night & so far there hasn't been any reports of death or serious injury, it's still to dangerous to go outside there as the winds are still to strong, the winds during the height of the storm where around 300km/hour.

This is a huge cyclone, I have only been through one cat 5 cyclone but it was fast moving so damage was kept to a minimum, with this one only time will tell, to give you an idea how large this is here's a link to compare the size with other countries.

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Cheers
Barry

Prayers headed down under. Stick your head up Aussie, and check in, give us an address to send beer!

Joe

I hope he's OK!!

OMG

May go the grace of God and mercy of the Divine to those who stand in it's path.

That's an incomprehensible monster to me, and my husband is a meteorologist who has done many a landing forecasts and catastrophic destruction forecasts for hurricanes .... that is a monster.

Please do keep us posted Barry

We'll keep the beer cold for Brian.

Cat

I managed to get hold of Brian on his mobile & he & Dennie are OK, the cyclone crossed the coast about 80 km to the south of them.

Here's another link showing some of the damage, it gets updated as more news comes in.
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Cheers
Barry

Glad to hear that he and his family are okay.

That's one god-awful storm.  Stay safe folks.


Carol

Wow that's just crazy! Glad to hear he's checked in ok.

That's a relief.....keep your head down brian!

Joe

Great to hear he and his family are fine. Just hope his beer came through ok too or he'll be devastated.

Good to hear that they're all right. 

Get back to us when you can, Brian.

All the best,

George

Thank you for keeping us updated Barry, that cyclone is massive!!!
Glad Brian & family are ok, our prayers for all those effected by this storm.

Good to know, thanks Barry.  Bri keeps his feet on the ground pretty well, thank goodness. 

Thanks for the update Barry.  Brian, you have more important things to deal with right now than us.  Give an update when you can.

Jerry

Thank goodness!!  Thank you Barry for keeping us posted!

Thanks for the update, Barry.

Sure hope his beer supplier didn't get blown away.

Good.

Experience tells me that beer is second behind ice...then a generator and gas...then food.

Feel free to put sex behind ice and move beer back to three but you'll need the ice...then the beer.

Soon it will be a vivid memory.  Hang in there Brian.

Steve G

Glad to head Brian is okay.

I've never seen what they're going through down there. Unbelievable.

Charlie

Guiseppi, I keep tellin' ya. Send beer, not Bud!! 

Thanks everybody, and nice to be able to say all is well. The main guts of the blow shifted southerly at the last minute and eventually crossed in an area of much lower population density. They copped it pretty tough but almost all are still alive and few injured. Three babies were born but 16 pubs were destroyed.

I sat it out with DennyM and millions of cold beer, having ensured all her elderly neighbours were set up. I've been feeding them ever since but we just got the power back up so things are getting back to normal and there's more golden-coldies chilled almost to perfection. (It was touch-and-go for a while hoping the ice would hold.)

I don't get on at all well with sudden and severe drops in the barometer so needless to say the night was spent with Cat-5 storms inside and out.

Tonight will be dinner for just the two of us - dead sheep, all the trimmings and maybe a glass of something nice and tomorrow I'll finish everyone's clean up.

Sincere thanks for your kind thoughts and we'll be drinking a toast to you all.

Cheers and beers,

Brian down under.

Sorry to hear about the pubs Brian. 

I stand corrected Brian! ;D Nice to have you back.

Joe

Beer floats, no problems mate.
Good your there Brian.
the bb

Great to hear that you made it through unscathed Brian!!  I've not been online for a while but had you in my thoughts quite a bit of late with all that's been going on. 

Don't know what's happening in Australia lately with all the floods, cyclone, fires etc.  Crazy times! 

We had quite a bit of flooding down this way but thankfully we personally were not affected. 

My thoughts go out to everyone who is having to deal with the clean up and loss.  Very sad!!

Kate

Hope Brian stays wet....it the best meaning of that term.

NBC news did several minutes tonight on the mess from Perth to Queensland....even an emotional speech from the PM. They say that the cyclone rivals Katrina in intensity.

It's hard to get your mind around this thing.

Hold on Brian.

Charlie