After the category five cyclone Larry in 2006, which was a
'hundred-year'
cyclone, nobody expected anything of that size coming our way again in
a hurry.
The last bigger cyclone before Larry was Winifred in 1986, and that was
only a category 3 cyclone.
On the night of the 2nd of February 2011 another category five cyclone,
Yasi, crossed the coast of north
Queensland, leaving behind about the
same degree of devastation as Larry did in March 2006.
Houses were destroyed, roofs ripped off, and tropical
rainforests were
once again turned into heaps of bare tree trunks. Banana fields were
flattened and banana prices went ten times up just like after Larry.
Yasi had a bit different path. Both Larry and Yasi
roughly hit the area between Townsville
and
Cairns but Larry was closer
to Cairns
while Yasi was closer to
Townsville.
Larry's centre crossed the coast at Innisfail and had a path of
devastation between Cairns in north and Cardwell in south, with some of
the most devastated towns being Innisfail, Babinda and Mission
Beach.
Yasi had a wider path and more southern direction, and affected the
area between Innisfail in north and Townsville in south, with some of
the most devasted places being Cardwell, Tully Heads, and again,
Mission Beach, which was probably the only township that coped both
cyclones so badly. Quite a lot of devastation also happened in Ingham
and
Townsville, however they didn't cope it quite as badly as Cardwell,
Tully and Mission Beach.
Mission Beach rainforest recovering five months after
Yasi.
With the current global
warming tropical cyclones have been
predicted to become stronger and more numerous, however we may be quite
safe for the next few years while La Nina is around instead of El Nino.
Note:
This site uses
British English, which is the English we use in Australia. You will
find words like "traveller", "harbour" and "realise", and they are all
correct in the language used in Australia.
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