 Okay, are you ready? Cyclone Yasi shows no signs of weakening is maintaining its intensity as a category five cyclone and is is still expected to begin to cross the coast around midnight. The crossing of this cyclone will take some three to four hours so we are yet many of you are starting to see images on your on your television screens of very very high winds trees are coming to horizontal positions this is only the beginning we have another two hours before we see the full force of this cyclone's power and that full force will then be maintained for at least three to four hours so much of what you're seeing is the very early signs of the impact of this cyclone. We are starting to see a rapid escalation in the number of houses losing power it's now reached 89,000 more than half of those are in Townsville and Ingham area and the Townsville CBD has now lost power we believe that that means that a significant number of evacuation centres in Townsville will now be without electricity. Can I clarify there is a data on the website that indicates that the wave boy at Townsville that records wave heights has recorded a wave height of 18 metres. What I'm advised is that what has actually started happening at that wave boy is that the waves are breaking over the boy which means that it is not able to accurately measure it is literally being turned upside down and 18 meters is not an accurate reading the readings go automatically on to the website so while it says 18 meters I know some people are reporting an 18 meter wave at Townsville this is not accurate and people should disregard the readings that are now showing on the website this boy is in a location where waves do not normally break however because of this cyclonic activity waves are now breaking over it and false readings are occurring however we do expect to see very strong storm surges and some of those will be in Townsville we're now seeing on the other areas where tides are being accurately measured that those tides and those water heights are climbing we've got a number of points at which they have now recorded their highest tide of the year and have now gone slightly over so we are beginning we're seeing the beginnings of the building of that storm surge that we indicated would build up over a three-hour period so we are seeing that happening but it is only just starting so can I just say reports of an 18 meter wave in Townsville are not accurate and I just a caution against taking material straight off this website now because they the measuring machines are now in extreme conditions that they've never experienced and unlikely to be accurate I might invite the Commissioner to W Commissioner to say a few words he's followed up on that complaint that we'd heard late earlier before thank you Premier yes I have had further information in relation to the caller at Port Hitchinbrook it's a really unfortunate situation that person is with five other people all of them are apparently in their mid-60s they had chosen not to evacuate they have been advised to go up onto the second story of the apartment block they're in which is the highest part of that block and to bunk it down it is really unfortunate that perhaps that they had not taken the advice that had been given them and they are now bunkering in place and to see this storm out we know that this is a storm surge area so there is going to be water and I've been advised that that water will come up at least to the the floor of the second story this is a destructive storm there is going to be a storm surge up to the top of the first story they're on the second story I have some advice in relation to that but I prefer to have that checked out before I provide it not that I'm aware of at this stage some of their relatives are suggesting they weren't told there there are six people six adult people we have been making these warnings through you the media for how many days we have been putting out EA's emergency advices through the Telstra and Telecom system the communication system to SMS's and home phones hard lines for a couple of days I'm absolutely sure there will be we are going to the officers had made arrangements to call back to check these people and that while they still can while they still have communication to those people they will continue to call we're still expecting to see winds of 290 kilometres an hour and perhaps stronger so we are talking about extreme and destructive winds that is like that are likely to prevail for a number of hours over the communities that will experience them so we are still to see the full force of this cyclone is still at least two hours away and we do expect it to become more extreme after that point so we are still in for the worst of this and it'll be very difficult after that point to get much information until morning comes and we can start to assess what has happened overnight not at this stage but we are very conscious that there are many places where we now have no electricity we won't necessarily know if people have lost our phone contact so it's not going to be an easy situation to get an accurate assessment of as we go through the night well I'm advised by the I was advised by the Council that the entire area of Cardwell was an evacuation area and certainly as I understood that they had evacuated all of it so there may well be some people who made a decision to stay but the Council had made every effort and indicated that it was a town that they were seeking to evacuate the entire town and Port Hinch and Brook where these people are located is at the southern side of Cardwell and you're not able to say exactly what you know in terms of then refusing to to evacuate I don't have I do not have that information at the moment I I have some information but not I I want to have that checked out before I make official comment about it certainly that's the estimates at the moment obviously we have to wait until the area is safe to go into and that's going to be when the storm has passed and people can get into it depending on road conditions and destruction in the area and that sort of timing would assume that either the roads were open or that helicopters were able to get into the air and get in which will depend on things like not only wind strength but other conditions such as clouds so we can't assume that we'll be able to get in as at midday that's certainly what we be hoping and that'll be the earliest we reasonably expect to areas like this but there are any number of conditions that could combine to make that impossible at this stage we haven't seen any loss of transmission towers but as I said we are still two hours away from the kind of force that would lift a transmission tower these towers are built to cyclone strength they've never been tested at this level before and inside cyclone Larry of course we know that six of them went down but we haven't reached anything like that strength of wind power yet that's a still two hours away and then it will prevail for some three to four hours so there is a lot yet to be tested across the whole system we have been saying for a couple of days now to the people of North Queensland that they need to prepare for the worst case scenario and that might mean that they have to be self-sufficient for a couple of days we will do everything in our power to minimise the time that people without assistance but that will not all be in our control it will depend on conditions whether we can get helicopters up it will depend on how badly damaged roads are and how quickly we can get some kind of vehicle in there we will use whatever vehicles we can lay our hands on and the army may well be able to assist but it will depend on those conditions and some level of self-sufficiency I don't want people to think that they will just get up tomorrow morning and everything will start to clicking in we need that I can't sugarcoat this for people it's going to be a very tough 24 hours and for many people it could be a tough couple of days and our evacuation centers coping as well as they can at the moment all the reports we have our senior police and other authorities at every one of these centers all the reports that we're getting is that people are very calm that they understand the magnitude of what the authorities are coping with and today to everything is going as well as could be expected in what I'm sure people will understand a fairly uncomfortable conditions so people are being patient with each other and I commend them for that and thank them they have a long way ahead of them and these sort of conditions mustn't not make it any easier this will be the last update that the Deputy Commissioner and I will do this evening we will make available information of any significance that arises overnight and make that available as quickly and as publicly as we can we will return to regular updates as soon as we can tomorrow morning as we close this update this evening I say to all of those people who are still able to receive these broadcasts whether it's on radio or on television we are waiting anxiously with you as we close tonight we know that the long hours ahead of you are going to be the hardest that you face we will be thinking of you every minute of every hour between now and daylight and we hope that you can feel our thoughts that you will take strength from the fact that we are keeping you close and in our hearts we look forward to seeing you safe and well tomorrow morning