Tropical Cyclone Yasi

Australia study-abroad tip number 7 ...

Number 7:

If you are studying abroad in the American spring semester (aka the Australian Fall) make sure you are aware that you are going to a tropical zone during their equivalent of Hurricane season

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Right now it is just past midnight on February the 3^rd in the State of Queensland. From what I have gathered from the news reports I’ve been watching and articles I’ve been reading, residents of Northern Queensland are holding their breath and waiting as the clock nears 1:00am – TC Yasi’s expected ETA for extreme landfall. And here I sit over 15,500km away in my comfy living room at 9:18am where I will be holding my breath from 10:00am until 1:00pm when – seemingly – nothing will happen.  I am actually just going to be hoping that James Cook University at Cairns – the school I am supposed to be traveling to – is not going to be wiped off the face of the earth. The other 7 students who are waiting (as I am, to hear from our home university as to what we need to do) are all waiting for news of their campus about 2 ½ hours South of Cairns – James Cook University at Townsville. The eye of the cyclone is set to split the bet and go straight between Cairns and Townsville but current weather reports shows this eye (which is over 100km across) hitting both cities anyway. 

 

Source: The Australian

 

This beast of a storm is over 650km (400 miles) wide and, at that size, it is over two times the size of Hurricane Katrina and more powerful – after seeing what Katrina did to New Orleans what will be left after this storm is a terrifying thought. So as the eye of the worst cyclone to ever hit Australia begins to make land fall I will be keeping up with reports and letting you guys know what is going on. Hit the jumps below to read reports, stats and watch video on Tropical Cyclone Yasi – I’ll be in touch.

~ S.S.

p.s. - Obviously I have not been posting and I have some catching up to do but half-way through a semester is not time to be trying to keep a blog going (apparently – who knew!). I do have more tips and advice on the way but right now this somehow seemed a little more pressing. I will be trying to post my updates within the next two days but right now – this storm of the century seems a little more pressing than giving tips about applying for your visa or planning your connecting flights.

 Australian Bureau of Meteorology

Links:

This Just In - Recent Releases

Video Updates and Coverage

Radio Streaming and Live Updates

Already Worse than Larry (The Previous 'worst-cyclone-ever') 

Commodity Markets to be Pounded Again

Transposed over the United States (jesu christo!)