This was published 7 months ago
‘Destructive’ Cyclone Kirrily arrives at night as category 3
By Matt Dennien
Emergency services personnel were preparing to check communities and Defence air support was on standby after Tropical Cyclone Kirrily crossed the Queensland coast near Townsville on Thursday night.
Due to the unfolding emergency, the Bureau of Meteorology has been updating its forecasts every hour. Just after 7pm on Thursday, the bureau advised the category 3 cyclone’s “destructive to very destructive eye wall is now moving onto the coast around Townsville”.
That means wind gusts of up to 170km/h at its core – and sustained winds of 120km/h – capable of tearing roofs off buildings, bringing down powerlines, and decimating crops. The cyclone made landfall within hours, north-west of the city, and be downgraded to a category 2 before midnight.
Many schools in the region did not open on Thursday to avoid pick-ups as 140km/h winds begin to lash the mainland between Innisfail and Sarina.
Evacuation sites were already hosting several people and 40,000 sandbags were in place for storm tides and flooding.
Townsville prisoners have been tasked with filling the bags as authorities made pre-emptive disaster declarations for Townsville and Mackay, with requests for help made for federal and interstate emergency personnel along with state resources.
After a Queensland Disaster Management Committee meeting in Brisbane on Thursday morning, Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Laura Boekel told a media briefing that isolated rain totals near Kirrily’s centre at landfall could approach 300 millimetres.
But intense rain was likely to follow the system as it continued west in the days ahead, extending flooding risks – and early preparations – out to Longreach as severe heatwave conditions shift toward the state’s south-east corner.
Extra moisture in the atmosphere meant that rain expected as far as the south-east, probably on Sunday, could be heavier than usual, with many regions already saturated after other extreme weather events in recent weeks.
“We could be seeing showers and storms across the south of the state that are producing more rainfall than usual because of the system in the north,” Boekel said.
State disaster co-ordinator Shane Chelepy said while preparations had been happening in the main warning areas over recent days, “today is the time to decide whether or not you’re going to stay within your house”.
“As the cyclone crosses the coast of this evening with heavy rain and wind, it becomes unsafe in the hours of darkness to be on our roads,” he said.
“If you are a visitor to our areas, or you’re in one of our campgrounds, please consider moving to one of those evacuation centres today.”
Chelepy said requests for federal help included specialised planning officers – from the National Emergency Management Agency and ADF – for relief and recovery efforts, along with extra “rescue aviation and heavy lift capability”.
Air support was in place to the north, south and west of the system’s path. Water police have also been sent to Townsville to assist other state and interstate boat crews.
Premier Steven Miles echoed Chelepy’s warning. “If it’s flooded, forget it. That is one of the most likely ways we could lose lives to Tropical Cyclone Kirrily,” he said.
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