Umm... holy crap

As if Queensland hadn’t had enough. First the floods in Central Qld. Then the floods in SE Qld. Now a tropical cyclone bigger than TC Tracey (1974) that flattened Darwin & TC Larry (2005) had hammered the same region around Innisfail will land tonight and let slip the dogs of war. Thanks to the many dedicated and seemingly insane journalists within the country we’ll see and hear all about it almost immediately.

As quickly as people were streaming out of the areas expected to be affected, journalists & the media were flying and driving in to the areas expected to be affected to ensure we all get all the information we need. If you’re on Twitter (or even if you’re not) you can follow a list of media who are covering the incident here. It’s an interesting read, particularly as those who are on the ground in Townsville/Innisfail/Cairns as they start to settle in now for the cyclone to cross the coast at about 10pm AEST tonight.

Tropical Cyclone Yasi is big. VERY big. Already a category 5 storm, best estimates place the diameter of the eye at approximately 35km and will take about an hour to pass when it hits an area. All the latest info can be found from the Bureau of Meteorology here.

Given all the media present, there’s lots of ways people can keep in touch. Locals absolutely need to be listening to their radio, and tune to their local ABC frequency for coverage proper. The rest of us can listen to it via digital radio or catch updates on our favourite AM/FM stations. Television stations will be ramping up coverage after both Ch7’s Sunrise and Ch9’s The Today Show broadcast their breakfast live out of various parts of Nth Qld, and they aired it live into Qld (not on the usual 1 hour DST delay). Throughout the day, particularly as the coverage heats up, you’ll be able to watch the online streams of ABC News 24, Channel 7 & Channel 9 – the latter two airing Sunrise and The Today Show respectively anyway, and all cyclone coverage as those shows stretch into the morning. Additionally the Qld Police Media Unit have their own LiveStream feed which will broadcast information from time to time. Social Media will again come into it’s own for immediate pictures, videos and updates all through the night and well into the next few days. It’s not just the media that will be delivering everything we need to know about what’s going on in Nth Qld for the next 48 hours.

It’s crazy that so many have put themselves directly in harm’s way just to bring us some television or radio. Stay safe, all of you.