Impact on Settlements
The major impacts on settlements were from severe wind, rain and storm surge. At south Mission Beach, 470mm of rain was recorded in 24hr period (Katec1, 2013). The heavy rainfall only added to the destruction the La Niña floods caused early in January. Cardwell experienced a 5m high storm surge, 2.3m higher than normal astrological tides and came inland for about 300m, it flooded esplanades at Cairns and Townsville (Katec 1, 2013). The Coastal Impacts Unit of the Department of Environment and Resource Management receives readings from a wave buoy in Townsville. The highest wave, 9.6m, since the operation began in 1975 was recorded at 7pm on the 2nd of February, 2011, surpassing the previous record of 6.6m. Cyclone Yasi was approximately 220km off the coast and 5.5 hours away.
The strong storm surge caused major damage to boat infrastructure at Cardwell.
The strong storm surge caused major damage to boat infrastructure at Cardwell.
Banana Plantations were also severely affected by the damaging winds.
North Queensland provides 90% of Australian bananas and Cyclone Yasi destroyed 75% of the plantations. After the Cyclone, banana prices were as high as $12.00 per kilo (Katec 1, 2013).