What next?!

Here we sit, three weeks after the "flood of the century" in Brisbane and we are once again battening down the hatches.  We are now officially in cyclone season.  Tropical Cyclone Andy, a category 2, hit the area around Bowen on the weekend, about 1000km north of Brisbane.  This is in the area that was hit by flooding back in December.  Cyclone Andy brought wind gusts of up to 120 km/h and torrential downpours which caused some localized flooding.  Andy was just the precursor, as he has a looming big ugly sister called Yasi which is striking much fear in the hearts of even the most seasoned Queenslanders.

Radar photo from the US Environmental Satellite Service, the coast of Australia is on the left hand side with CT Andy showing up as a green circular object.  The behemoth red bull's eye in the centre of the photo is Tropical Cyclone "The Big One" Yasi

Yasi, potentially a category 5, is expected to make land fall in the same area as Andy on Thursday morning.  The winds will be more powerful than what was seen with Andy and this could also demolish ports and beaches, cause massive flooding (just what we all need), destroy buildings and infrastructure, and rip up trees.  Residents in the area have been told to have food and water supplies and expect to be without power and water for up to four days.  On a positive note, since the 1960's, architectural design has vastly improved so most buildings of that era and newer were built to withstand cyclones, and these homes are not being evacuated.  Brisbane is much further in the south from Yasi's eye and should get off lucky with only more rain and wind than usual, but cyclones have ventured this far south before.

There are some rather graphic headlines on news and weather sites, such as "Residents Urged to Flee Monster Cyclone", "Cyclone Yasi Sets its Evil Eye on Cairns" and, our personal favourite, "Flood Escape Turns to High Drama for Cyclone Virgin" (we didn't really read that one, but it is well worth mentioning!)

Now we will have seen flooding and a cyclone, as well as a locust cloud in New South Wales that was so large they could track it by satellite. 

If all this wasn't enough to make you think the world has gone mad, yesterday morning we found a gecko in our dishwasher!  And that wasn't even the worst thing that we found in our house yesterday, as we had to unload a massive amount of bug spray on a spider the size of a doughnut!  That was our home-version of "the big one" and we will be perfectly happy not to have to deal with one ever again.