Cyclone survival kit from Ken Roberts on Vimeo.
Ken prepares his cyclone survival kit
Ken's Blog
Cyclone survival kit
February 2nd, 2011Cyclone Yasi – Waiting game
February 2nd, 2011Ten am. Twelve hours to impact. When the eye is expected to reach the coast. Upgraded to high Category 5. Nothing this big has ever hit the country. Not since records began. Unknown territory.
Strangely calm in Cairns. Unnervingly so. Waiting game. Winds building. Likely to increase rapidly over the next few hours as the system closes land.
Reports just in advise Yasi has crossed Willis Island off the Queensland coast. Weather station lost. Hoping the beleaguered meteorological staff safely in their bunker.
Cyclone Yasi – bunkering down
February 1st, 2011
Refuge prepared. Windowless bathroom. Stocked with enough provisions to last at least a week. Emma, my trusty steed, stowed under the sink. Still got to ride to Sydney. At some point.
Cyclone Yasi – Cairns – the scene beforehand
February 1st, 2011
First light in Cairns. Eerie. Awaiting the imminent arrival of Cyclone Yasi. Now upgraded to maximum Category 5. Winds over two hundred miles an hour. It may be a very different scene tomorrow morning..
Cyclone Yasi
February 1st, 2011Five am local. Cairns. Not yet light. Eerie. A few people wandering around. Waiting. Overnight Cyclone Yasi’s predicted track has shifted a little south towards the coastal town of Innisfail. But such is the sheer size of the system – the eye is over sixty miles across – considerable destruction is still expected here. No one is under any illusions about what’s about to happen.
The system is expected to make landfall around midnight tonight, intensifying to maximum Category 5 as it approaches the coast. Its effects being felt long before that. Power grid already down. Emergency generator kicked in.
The last flights out of Cairns have left. The major regional hospital next door evacuated overnight by the Royal Australian Air Force. The big concern remains tidal surge, especially as much of Cairns is built on former mangrove swamp. Some of it below sea level. Possibility of metres of seawater inundating the city.
Faced with my travellers hostel being flooded out, I made a snap decision earlier to relocate to a hotel nearby that should be bit safer. Emma and all the kit stowed on the sixth floor. In the windowless bathroom that will be my refuge if things get really tough. Also stocked with a week’s worth of tinned food, water and fuel. For the aftermath.
Plan is to try and capture the events of the next few days as best I can. Cameras charged. Notebook ready. Cyclones are regular occurrences here, but it seems Yasi is a monster. Unknown territory. I’ll be doing my level best to share my first hand experiences via the web – my own website, Facebook and Twitter – as circumstances permit. Contingency plan in place to at least get the odd ’tweet’ out via my satellite phone. It’s going to be emotional. And it’s my birthday…
[Author’s note: You should also see a few other posts appearing each evening, unconnected with Cyclone Yasi, for a couple more days – these are ones I’ve already uploaded onto my UK server and scheduled for publication]
Disconnected worlds
February 1st, 2011Funny thing the virtual world. Facebook. Twitter. Online banking. E-mail. My own website. Videos and photos for all to see. Wonderous way to share experiences, organise, plan ahead. And less to carry on the road. A little bit at least. But too much reliance on things electronic is not without its problems. As I was discovering.
Back in the Medicare office my efforts to register with Australia’s healthcare scheme had hit rocks. Demonstrating I was actually resident in the UK. On paper. A requirement, much to my frustration, that hadn’t been mentioned during my first visit. And this I explained, ever so politely. Always willing to try and provide whatever evidence was required. But shifting sands problematic.
We settled on a print out of an online banking statement. Simple enough you’d think. But those clever computer chaps at my bank have made sure printing such things is err.. not possible. Presumably something to do with identity theft. Bit of scrabbling around and I was able to cobble together something together. Hoping it would be enough. And returned to the Medicare office with my netbook. Offering to present the evidence on the screen if need be.
Fortunately the adviser understood the problem. Online banking. Electronic visas. Something of a disconnect with paper applications. Bit of an Anglophile I thought. Approved. At last. I’d have celebrated with a small cup of coffee. But, despite using a myriad of dubious Central Asian and Chinese ATMs without problem, it seemed my card had now been blocked. Finally. In Cairns, Australia. First world. Straightforward to resolve. But unhelpful nevertheless.
Back in the ever more acceptable tropical heat and humidity I mulled over potential pitfalls ahead. US visa. It had everything. Lengthy online application. Interview. With lots of paperwork. Hope I had the right stuff. And my mobile internet connection. Would it work in North America? Track record had been good – everywhere but Krygzstan. And France.
[If you are a UK – they use the term British here – citizen visiting Australia and need to register with Medicare (often stipulated by insurance companies), note that a UK Driving Licence is not normally accepted as evidence of residency. Could have been issued years ago. So probably wise to carry a recent utility bill or credit card statement that shows your address]
Striking a balance
January 31st, 2011
Striking a balance. No panic. Rather, just making sensible preparations for the arrival of Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi. The hundred kilometre wide eye expected to make landfall along the Queensland coast within the next 48 hours. Off to stock up on tinned food, bottled water, fuel for stove, cash. And a small birthday cake.
Australia Day
January 31st, 2011Australia Day. Celebrating what it is to be Australian. I’d feared it might be a bit too overtly nationalistic for me. Public displays of flag waving lacking appeal. Much preferring a more understated, but unquestionable, patriotism.
But I needn’t have worried. Breakfast barbeques. Bands playing in the park. Families relaxing in the shade. Rather tasteful. A few flags. Mostly face transfers at that. Perhaps that’s what it is to be Australian. Getting the job done. Without fuss or frivolity. Aborigines a bit thin on the ground mind.
They’ve certainly got a lot to celebrate. For theirs is still a very youthful nation. An entire continent elevated to first world in just a few hundred years. Remarkable achievement.
I’d wondered if there might be more subtle undertones. Seeking to bind together a diversity of immigrant cultures. But no. For, specifics aside, the underlying philosophy for being allowed to settle here seems to have been a fairly consistent one. Fitting in. Integration. And it seems to have worked pretty well. You sense, for all the diversity of backgrounds, a pretty homogenous society. Good on ya.
Birthday bash
January 31st, 2011
Birthday looming. Some celebrate with jelly and ice cream. Looks like I’m going to share mine with Tropical Cyclone Yasi. Described by Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology as a “Goliath“. Deep joy. Look carefully at the map of the system’s expected track and you’ll notice some small numbers. Indicates strength. Increasing as it approaches the coast. Four isn’t good.
Still, feeling pretty stoic about it all. For several reasons. Firstly, I’m actually quite excited. So far I’ve found myself arriving after the riots, missing the bomb attacks, escaping the flooding. Looks like I might get some first hand experience. Hoping to capture it on film. See how quickly I can get to share it on the web.
Then there’s the Aussie spirit. Talk of Cyclone parties. Batten down the hatches. Get the washing in. Find a safe refuge. First floor is good to avoid being flooded out. Tape up the windows. Grab a beer. Some friends. Watch things fly past. The odd dustbin. Debris. Livestock can be a bit problematic.
And even if my curiosity doesn’t appeal, nor does the “Dunkirk spirit”, there’s the little issue of where exactly would you go? On a bicycle? Cyclones have a habit of being a bit unpredictable. Suddenly veering off the expected track. Best to sit put.
[Image above Copyright Commonwealth of Australia Bureau of Meteorology. For illustrative rather than predictive purposes]
Measuring the miles
January 30th, 201116,028 kilometres – 9959 miles
Distance cycled. So far. My own, reasoned, estimate had been about 10,000 miles. But now I’d got a much more accurate figure from all the GPS fixes I’d collected over the past five hundred or so days.
You’d think there’d be some nifty software to calculate the distances between fixes. But no. Not that I’ve been able to find. Rather, you must devise your own. Or ask your webmaster to help.
Enough statistics. Early morning here in Cairns. Might have to go and do a couple of loops of Cairns. Bag another 41 miles. Hit the magic 10,000.
[With especial thanks to James the webmaster for devising the software to calculate the distance ridden]
Terms & Conditions of Use | Copyright © 2009-2024 Ken Roberts