Breakwater Marina closes, boaties prepare for TC Kirrily
NQ boaties and visitors in the Breakwater Marina are prepared for wild weather, as it closes in preparation for Cyclone Kirrily.
Townsville
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There were only a few boat owners at Townsville’s Breakwater Marina preparing for the cyclone on Thursday morning.
The marina was a hive of activity yesterday as yachts, catamarans and tenders were stripped and tied down.
The harbourmaster has ordered the marina closed.
Corinne and Shane Baildon were battening down Thursday morning, and were prepared for the harbourmaster to order an evacuation.
“Most people who live on the boats have packed everything down already,” Ms Baildon said.
Adelaide man Rodney Lewis has been sailing for decades, and took a berth in Townsville for fiduciary purposes.
“This is our port of refuge. Basically it keeps the insurance company happy,” Mr Lewis said.
“We’ve all been in 60 knots (wind) before. But you don’t know until it happens. Better to be ready than not.”
“Everyone has got their boats ready. The marina has done a good job making sure everyone is doing the right thing,” Mr Lewis said.
He and his partner already booked a room at a nearby motel and did not expect to be away from the yacht for long.
“It’s going to go through pretty quick.”
Townsville man Robert Parke was putting the final touches on his Peterson 38 yacht as well, and had faith the boats would be protected.
“It’s a pretty safe marina with the units and the hill. It should not cop the full brunt,” Mr Parke said.
“The tidal surge is the only thing that could undo it. But that’s not predicted to be that bad.
“But touch wood it should be all good.”
‘My house is old’: Kirwan resident one of the first at evacuation centre
John Hubert was one of the first to bunker down at the evacuation centre at Heatley Secondary College on Wednesday evening.
The Kirwan resident said he didn’t feel safe weathering Kirrily in his ageing home and turned up at the cyclone centre with a small bag packed with essentials like canned food, medication and his birth certificate.
“This is the first time I’m going through a cyclone on my own like this - I feel numb,” he said.
“My house is old. I’m worried about the damage I’ll find when this is over, and I go home.”
Only a handful of people were in evacuation centres around Townsville on Thursday morning, but volunteers expect many more to turn up in the afternoon as the cyclone nears the coast.
‘It’s your home’: Beach town battens down hatches
The sound of lawnmowers, utes driving up roads with sandbags and bare patios lined the streets of a small north Queensland beach town as residents battened down the hatches in preparation for the forecasted cyclone Kirrily.
While every person was preparing their homes, there was still a sense of optimism in Cungulla as for many residents, this isn’t their first natural disaster and for those who are bracing to experience their first possible cyclone, they are relying on their true blue Aussie calm to get them by.
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Cungulla residents Peta and Gerry Hayden, who have lived in their beachfront home for four years, said it would be their first cyclone however they have chosen to stay put for the next few days.
“We’re getting prepared, that’s all you can do,” Mrs Hayden said.
“We’re most worried about getting a storm surge through the night because it will be high tide.
“We’ve put the cars in the shed and hooked up the boat, all the furniture will be brought in this afternoon and we’ll go from there.”
The north Queenslander said most of her neighbours had decided to stay with their homes for the next few days.
“Most people will stay, it’s your home,” she said.
Just a few doors down, living with a friend, his chooks and some dogs in his own beach house was Kell Stahr who experienced not only Cyclone Yasi in 2011 but Cyclone Tracey that tore through Darwin in 1974.
“To prep? You name it, we have a generator ready, sandbags, I’ve been cleaning up, we’ll get there,” he said.
Mr Stahr who has lived at the Cungulla home for seven years said he was stocked up on food and had plenty of water in case he isn’t able to leave the home for the next few weeks.
“I have plenty of beer in the fridge, that’s all I need,” he said.
While there was no concern of a water shortage to Mr Stahr, the local rural firey Kevin Harney said for many homes in the area, they would get cut off from water once the power was out and with 75 per cent of residents choosing to stay with their homes, they would need to be prepared.
“The ones who are staying are really concerned about water supply,” he said.
“I’ve been telling people to fill their bathtubs and fill water bottles, fill up any containers you have to hold water for at least three to five days.
The firey who has lived in the area for more than two decades said once the weather event has concluded he would drop off slabs of water to residents free of charge, however, the truck only had enough slabs to last up to five days.
An added concern for the veteran firey was communication with the senior members of the community.
“I’ve been going around communicating with a lot of the oldies this morning,” he said.
“I’ve been starting their generators and making sure they are prepared. I’m the one that has to tell them as they don’t have internet or a way of keeping up to date.”
Along with Mr Harney, members from Queensland Police were door knocking to ensure residents were accounted for and were aware of the forecasted weather event.
Family members of residents who have homes in Cungulla were also in among the action helping their loved ones secure their homes and belongings, including brothers Jhi and Jacob Poletti whose grandmother was preparing to evacuate.
“We’ve been putting all of nan’s pot plants inside all morning,” Jhi said.
“The boat’s in the garage, we’ve thrown a few things out and gotten sandbags.”
While the 88-year-old grandmother is going to take up residence at Jhi’s Alligator Creek home, he said she was keen to stay put.
“Nan wants to stay, she’s been through a cyclone before and was evacuated for Cyclone Yasi,” he said.
Beer, thongs: Residents’ last minute cyclone preparations
As the system that will become Cyclone Kirrily inches closer, seasoned preppers were feeling calm as they ticked off the final items from their disaster checklists.
Shoppers around Townsville on Wednesday were anything but panicked with many completing their normal weekly shops or picking up a few last minute items.
Paul Gower, 63, was picking up an essential cyclone item – a carton of beer – after flying back into Queensland from Papua New Guinea on Tuesday night.
“I work in Papua New Guinea, they flew us out yesterday to come home and prepare,” he said.
“I’ve lived through three cyclones in Western Australia but I had to go buy another generator this morning and I’ve got a boot full of fuel.”
Mr Gower said on the plane trip into Townsville he could see the heavy clouds building out over the ocean.
“This morning coming down in the place, when you looked out to the east it was really black,” he said.
At Bunnings at Fairfield Waters, a recent shipment of generators had stocked up empty supply after people had rushed in earlier in the week to get their hands on one.
They also had a cyclone preparation table with checklists available to ensure people could get what they were looking for quickly.
Shelves remained stocked at Woolworths at Fairfield central shopping centre with crates of bottled water still available as well as plenty of canned goods and meat.
While the Woolworths branded long life milk was in short supply, other brands were still available on the shelves.
Maggie Island prepares
Magnetic Island residents have turned up in full force to fill sandbags provided by the SES in Nelly Bay and the Horseshoe Bay Rural Fire Brigade, ahead of the incoming tropical low.
However, Magnetic Island State Emergency Service (SES) has said the bags are only available to residents and won’t be provided to local businesses or holiday homes.
Rod Thorne, Area Manager for Magnetic Island SES said they had at least 40 people come to collect sandbags before midday, Wednesday, January 24.
“We would need 2000 for all of the shops in Horseshoe Bay, we just can’t do it,” Mr Thorne said.
SES member Andrew Kierans said the phones have been busy with people calling for assistance to clean up their properties before the forecast Tropical Cyclone Kirrily.
“We’ve even had southern holiday home owners calling us to clean up the palm fronds in their yard,” he said.
The limited number of sandbags has forced local business owners to look at alternative ways of protecting their storefronts.
With reports that Mitre 10 on Magnetic Island have sold out of bags, shop owners have been advised to get bags from Bunnings and Mitre 10 in Townsville.
However, with SeaLink’s last ferry returning to the island from Townsville Breakwater Terminal at 5:25pm, Wednesday February 24, it’s a mad dash many aren’t able to make.
JCU cyclone testing stations ready for 150km/h winds
While locals race to complete final preparations around their houses, one group of James Cook University engineers are busy setting up testing stations to face the cyclone head on.
A team of five JCU engineers were busy bolting down six cyclone testing stations used to create better cyclone resistant buildings by collecting data.
Chief research Engineer David Henderson said the tests were used to understand how the wind impacts in and around houses in the area.
“When there’s a cyclone coming in, we try to get as much knowledge as we can about it,” he said.
“One of the ways of doing it is setting up these swell net anemometers that are about single story house height level.”
“Here we want to try and learn about the gustiness and turbulent nature; all those impacts that are on our houses.”
The cyclone testing stations record wind speeds, wind direction, temperature, relative humidity and pressure.
This data is collected in real time and fed through to the JCU’s website, and then used to create better cyclones resistant housing designs.
“Massive changes in our building codes happened in the mid to late 80s so houses built since then are built to a higher standard in terms of wind loads,” Mr Gower said.
“So there’s actually not much known about wind loads in and among our communities so we’re really trying to get as much information as we can and see how houses are performing with these wind speeds.”
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