Tropical Cyclone Ului

On Sunday 21st March at 1.30am, Tropical Cyclone Ului crossed the Queensland coast here at Airlie Beach. The tropical revolving storm re-intensified to a Category 3 system before making landfall. The following images (courtesy Australian Bureau of Meteorology and Sea Breeze) show the accompanying rainfall and live weather readings from Hamilton Island during the event. (Click to enlarge.)

For several days prior to the cyclone's landfall, we nervously watched the weather reports and formed our cyclone plan. We decided that in the event of a direct hit (of Category 2 or more), we would get off the boat and stay on land. By saturday afternoon we had prepared Brilliant II for the inevitable. Items that could possibly become airborne were either lashed down or removed. Our floating home was secured to her marina berth with no less than eleven mooring lines. We disembarked, leaving our beloved boat to her fate.

We arrived at a friend's flat in Cannonvale with our eight week old baby and two cats. We all went to bed quite early in an attempt to get some sleep.

I woke up about half an hour before the cyclone struck. We lost power and it was stiflingly hot without the ceiling fan. The next thing I remember was the noise - the hissing rain and roaring wind, then deathly quiet as the eye of the storm passed right overhead. In the strongest gusts the building shook, but none of this woke baby Joshua who slept peacefully through the carnage.

It was a tense few hours while we waited for the dawn, worrying now about our boat. We were just about to head to Abel Point Marina when a text message came through from our neighbours. Brilliant II was alright.

Breathing huge sighs of relief we drove home via the foreshore of Airlie Beach. Here we saw that other boats had not been so lucky. The charter yacht Anaconda II lay on the rocks beside the Whitsunday Sailing Club. At Shute Harbour (where we previously moored) the anchorage was devastated. Here Whitsunday Rent-A-Yacht were among the worst affected, suffering substantial damage to their fleet. It was very distressing to see so many boats wrecked, beached and half-sunk. To me they represented shattered dreams.

I felt extremely fortunate to step back aboard our own boat later that day. Although there was no power to the docks, we were in a much better situation than most, thanks to our fully charged battery bank and solar panels. Cyclone Ului left 60,000 homes across the region without electricity and gave Ergon Energy a round-the-clock job for some time.

I am pleased to report that five days later, power has largely been restored and our resilient community is moving on.

To see video footage of before and after Ului struck, click on the play button below.