 Some changes with cyclone Yasi overnight. Cyclone Yasi overnight has got faster, it has gone further north and it is intensifying. It has now speeded up to a system travelling at approximately 40 km per hour. What this means is that the most likely crossing time is at 1am on Thursday morning. It has moved north and the high risk area is now between Cannes and Innesvale and the cyclone warning area has extended as far north as Cooktown. We expect to see gale force and destructive winds from the Mossman to Ayr, Home Hill area. I should say in relation to predictions at this stage, some time tomorrow morning the Bureau of Meteorology has a radar station on Willis Island which is east of Cannes. The cyclone is expected to cross Willis Island sometime tomorrow morning. The staff who are located on Willis Island have a category 5 cyclone shelter but it will come on to their radar system at that point. At that point we will be likely to have a crossing point down to about a 50 km degree of accuracy and precision. This cyclone has also intensified overnight. It is now most likely to cross the coast at an upper level category 4. By comparison, cyclone Larry was a mid-level category 4. So we are expecting to see winds of more than 250 km an hour and these are winds of higher intensity than cyclone Larry. This of course is not only a system now tracking as more intense than cyclone Larry it is significantly larger than cyclone Larry. So the areas on the north and south of the crossing point will likely to experience significant weather disruptions. This system is so big that even at a low tide 100 km south of the center we would expect to see some tidal storm surge activity. If there is any silver lining here the movement of the cyclone slightly north has meant that when it travels west and goes inland it is less likely to drop all of that massive rainfall into the central Queensland catchment areas that have already experienced flooding and more likely, I guarantee, but more likely to head into the gulf and take the rain into areas more able to cope with it. This system is such a large system that the eye of this cyclone that people in the immediate area will experience as a period of calm could last for more than an hour and it's very important that if I understand that calm is not an opportunity to go walking outside and to have a look around. This is such a big system that the eye could last for more than an hour and at the end of that period the next thing that will be felt is the strongest possible winds. So those people who are in the eye of this storm were getting this message out early so that people know not to get out and about. Cyclone warnings will start today at 11 o'clock. As I said, it will extend from Cooktown in the north down into the southern areas around Air and Home Hill. But those people who are not in the critical area between Pans and Innisfile need to prepare for significant and difficult weather as well. It's likely that those on the acid and table lands will experience weather conditions of around a Category 3 cyclone. Townsville can expect wind and other weather conditions of around a Category 2 cyclone. And Mackay and Whitsundays can expect Category 1 conditions that is heavy rainfall, very rough weather, high pressure and strong wind. So we will expect to see very difficult and potentially dangerous weather along the way down the coast out of the danger zone. This will be accompanied by significant storm surge activity that could or was likely to lead to very high amounts of water coming into flash flooding in the areas that are affected. If this cyclone does hit as currently predicted around 1am that hopefully will be low tide. However, if it accelerates or slides down it could come back into the high tide range. So the storm surge warnings for low lying and waterfront areas remain and people on either side of the Pans and Innisfile area should still be taking every precaution and considering relocation. As you can see, there has been some changes overnight and we can expect that there might be some further changes in the next 24 to 36 hours. That means that we are making decisions and giving advice in a highly volatile situation. What we do know is that we can expect to see devastating and destructive winds in this region as early as tomorrow morning. That means that travel after about 8am tomorrow travel anywhere north of Townsville is going to be extremely difficult. We would anticipate that airports are likely to close tomorrow and we would expect that major roads are likely to be either shut or have very limited access on them and that the driving conditions will be very, very extreme. So really what that means today is the time to act. Today is the last opportunity for people to safely prepare for this event. Preparation means, firstly, if you are in a low line area in the danger zone and beyond, you need to relocate yourself and your family. Local disaster management groups are meeting in each of these areas this morning and a number of them will take a decision to move to mandatory relocations and evacuations. If you have an emergency service officer or a police officer, knock on your door and ask you and your family to move, I ask you to cooperate with them. What we've seen in the last five weeks is that where communities cooperate with authorities, we were able to protect lives. Where communities got enough warning to prepare, we could keep them safe. We do have time to prepare but that time is now and it is today. For those who are not in those waterfront low line areas but in the affected zone, you need to take action to protect your property. That is to lock away your vehicles, to put away outdoor garden furniture and to lock away anything that could become a missile in cyclonic winds. Also, anyone from the Mackay to Cooktown needs to prepare to be self-sufficient for a period of time. The size and extremity of this storm will take down power lines, will take out electricity substations. You need to prepare for a period of time without electricity. That means getting batteries for torches and radios. It means stocking up on food and fuel and it means making sure you've got candles and other equipment that will see you and your family through a period without electricity. We can't say how long that might be but we do know in some places it could be for an extended period of time. There are people here in this region who are trying to leave the region today, particularly people who are tourists or visitors to the region and I know that people are getting advice that airlines are full. I say that the major airlines Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin will be putting on extra flights came to the region today. So can I encourage people, if you are wanting to leave by air today is the last opportunity to do that most likely and you should contact airlines and let them know that you want to be on one of the flights that they will bring in today. In relation particularly now that the cyclone has moved north and the very strong likelihood of storm surge flood waters we are now looking very seriously at an evacuation of Cairns Base Hospital. Cairns Base Hospital is on the Esplanade and will be susceptible to storm surge. There are approximately 300 patients who are currently in patients and who may need to be completely evacuated to Brisbane and there is a further 60 patients at the Cairns private hospital that's similarly located. Work is now occurring with the Australian Defence Force to do a massive evacuation potentially out of the Cairns hospital later today. When will that decision be made for you? That will be made in the next couple of hours when we have refined the storm surge advice from the Bureau of Meteorology and the Department of Environment Results Management experts. Finally can I just say that all schools, Catholic, Independent and State schools in the Far North Queensland District will be closed for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week. Letters will be going out with children going home from school today and I advise parents that all schools in the Catholic education Independent and State sectors in the Far North Queensland region that extends down to south of Townsville will be closed. For a further 62 schools in the North Queensland region will be closed on Wednesday depending on where this cyclone hits but on current advice that's where we would expect to see. So most schools in this region close all schools close Wednesday and most close Thursday and Friday as well. Ladies and gentlemen this storm is huge and it is life-threatening. Being well prepared is our best defence. I know many of us will feel that Queensland has already born that as much as we can bear when it comes to disasters and storms but more is being asked of us and I'm confident that we are able to rise to this next challenge. We have redeployed considerable staff and we will do more today. Swiftwater rescue teams, emergency staff and extra police are already in place and more will be deployed into the Cooktown and Cairns regions today. We will have every available resource on-site and in place in the event that this cyclone has currently predicted crosses our coast in the next 48 hours or so. Thank you Premier. Can I just reiterate? Please make that mistake. This storm is a deadly event. People need to take action between now and tomorrow morning after which time in the high-impact areas it will be unsafe to travel. So do not make any mistake. Do not be undecided. Take action now either to prepare yourself to shelter in place if you are out of the storm surge areas and that information is available through local government either on their websites or by telephone but if you are in those storm surge zones you must relocate voluntarily or as the Premier rightly said later on today there will most probably be mandatory evacuation orders made and that is likely by lunchtime today. So now is the time to act prepare yourself, relocate out of the high-risk zones if that is at all possible that is the best information that we can give you at this time. I should add on that point that I have the Minister for Emergency Services and myself have this morning signed a preemptive disaster declaration for all local government areas in the central Queensland, northern Queensland far northern Queensland and western areas to ensure that police and emergency workers required to do mandatory evacuations will have all legal powers to do so but as we have seen over the last five weeks I would hope they do not need to use those powers we will only get through this with cooperation and working together and I am confident that the people of northern and far northern Queensland will be safer if they can do that. Will the Defence Force be assisting with any other evacuations apart from the Kansas Hospital? At this stage we are not in need of any Defence Force assets for other evacuations but that will be monitored on a regular basis. We do have senior representatives of the ADF on the state disaster management group and on the local group in Townsville and they stand ready to deploy and we are most likely to meet their assistance after this event has crossed the border. Where will the patients be taken to? They will be accommodated here in Brisbane. Some elective surgery may need to be cancelled to accommodate those patients but across the south-east we have spare capacity in hospitals and that is being managed as I speak so it is a very big exercise. Some patients and the hospital workers in Kansas are now working some patients may be able to return home maybe go earlier than they planned others will need to be relocated. There are between 250 and 300 patients who may need evacuation it is in a range because we are now working with every single patient some who are able to go home may prefer to do so and they will be safer in doing so so that exercise is appearing right now the Kansas Space Hospital is on the Esplanade it is very likely to be subject to significant storm surge activity if the cyclone hits on its current forecast pattern. We don't want to be undertaking this exercise tomorrow in the structure of Gaufford's wheelies How long have they been transported to Brisbane? They will be taken with a combination of ambulances to the airport in Kansas transported by Hercules by the ADS is the current plan. Thank you, good question There are other health facilities in CANS that are not in the title storm surge zone which will be equipped to deal with medical emergencies so that will be another facility in CANS and we are just working through which one it will be that is out of the immediate storm surge area that will be equipped to deal with medical emergencies CANS staff and doctors and nurses will be staying in CANS to manage those emergencies So where is that Will we be able to advise you they have a number of health facilities and they are just currently working out which one is best but there are a couple of options and they may in fact end up with two or three on the northern and southern sides of CANS so that will be advised to people in CANS throughout the day should the evacuation occur Does the evacuation message still extend to people south of Townsville? Yes we do expect to see as I said in Townsville category 2 cyclonic conditions and in Mackay category 1 we are unlikely to see the storm surge that we were worried about in places like Mackay if the cyclone hits that low tide but that is still a very big if it accelerated overnight and if it accelerated again overnight tonight that could move it into a high tide range so I understand and people want absolute accuracy unfortunately in these events there is a level of volatility and some people may relocate and ultimately it's unnecessary I would rather you were inconvenienced for three days than have your lives threatened by dangerous, fast rising powerful storm surge waters so the message to people in those areas is still if you're in a low lying area if you're on the waterfront and you can relocate it is the safest and best thing to do You spoke of mandatory evacuations once today, where will they be impacted? Certainly in the high impact areas and that will be obviously in the Cairns area in south one of the challenges that we have with this is the moving nature of where landfall may be and again that's why we haven't specified that because we need everyone to be prepared on the southern side of landfall we will expect significant storm surge and again this is going to be an impact by the timing because of the tides so mandatory evacuation orders will probably be put in place for all areas from certainly Mosman probably all the way down to at least Cardwell So how many people potentially is that involving? It's about a quarter of a million in that total area but obviously not all of them live on the front in those storm surge areas but the mapping provides people with an indication whether their residence is located in that and people need to go online or to ring their local councillor to find out if they're in a high risk area But we are talking about thousands of people in those at risk areas of storm surge if we see them coming to the Cairns region But there won't be mandatory evacuations in townfall or air or blockage Also I mentioned Cardwell the timing of this and as the information becomes clearer as we get near to landfall which it's still expected to be in the early in the early hours of Thursday morning or late on Wednesday evening as that becomes narrower and narrower we will have a much better idea where that is so we may put mandatory orders in place so that we can act right up to the last possible moment so that people get out Now that is likely to be before 8am to 10am tomorrow morning When is the next update from the weather bureau There will be further information and modelling on storm surge activity around 11am today provided to councils and so that will be available and information about mandatory evacuations around lunchtime or just after lunchtime the weather bureau will update all of its models the five o'clock state disaster management group in terms of tracking these sorts of changes there needs to be a bit of time in between the models to get an indication of movement I think it would be useful I'm conscious that we may have more information in relation to mandatory movements by then I probably have confirmation on can phase hospital and the other emergency medical treatment facilities in can so it is, as I said a changing volatile situation we're trying to get people the information they need we can't give people with the same sort of precision that you can with a slowly moving rising river in a flood and people will just have to accept that this volatile information this volatile situation we give you as much information so that you can make the best decision for you and your family