News reports are focusing on the town of Innisfail at the moment, probably because it’s the most populated area and the eye of the storm appears to have passed overhead there; but looking at the weather satellite images the storm was huge, so there’s going to be a lot of people affected.

The place we stayed is approximately 14 miles from where the storm centre hit the land. Around the same time, the main storm area was about 200 miles in diameter.

The huts are in the rainforest just up from Bingil Bay, and it sounds like the area has had a battering.

Ms Welch said the landscape was usually dense with rainforest, but “all of a sudden it is just open and we can see the hill in front of us. We can see houses in the next street we couldn’t see before.”

Hope you’re all ok folks.

Cyclone Larry

By overlaying satellite images from the last 24 hours I’ve been able to fairly accurately model the path and the extent of the storm.

The extent of cyclone:

The path of the cyclone:

Google Earth Model

To view this model of cyclone Larry in 3D get Google Earth (it’s free).

Brett and Vicky got hitched at the “Moon Palace Golf Resort and Spa”, a nice “wedding-on-the beach” affair which is approxiately 10 miles south of Cancun, and around 60 miles north of where the centre of the storm hit land.

The big red arrow is highlighting the large red spot south of cancun centre, which indicates the location of the resort.

The white dotted line shows the extent of the storm system, which is approximately 160 miles in diameter, so they were definitely affected by it, and the resort will have been 20 miles within it’s limits.

The picture was generated using Google Earth (which is free), with an overlay of the hurricane’s path.

Update

Sounds like Brett’s hotel was used as a refuge by many people from the surrounding area, which is good news ’cause they’re likely to be OK, but a shame their honeymoon got gatecrashed:

They were then told they would be evacuated at 9 a.m. Sunday. A bus took them to the Moon Palace Resort in Cancun, where they camped with thousands of other displaced tourists in a hastily arranged shelter on the beach. – Dayton Daily News

The Moon Palace distributed notices Sunday advising guests that a curfew would begin at 5 p.m., alcohol sales were banned, and room service was terminated. ”We suggest you stay calm and strictly follow instructions of the hotel staff . . .,” the advisory said. “Stay in your room. Keep your shades and curtains closed. Do not use the Jacuzzi. Stay away from windows and doors. Keep your documents and valuables safe.” – The Miami Herald