North Queensland prepares for Cyclone Kimi

Sellars Farms owner Naomi Brownrigg – at Mission Beach, 110 kilometres south of Cairns -said Kimi was “a little one” compared with previous cyclones.

“We’re cutting fruit and we’re tying up the banana trees, making sure everything is tied up so it helps support the tree in the event of any wind,” she said.

“We might get a bit of wind but that’s part of having a banana farm … It’s a bit of a wait-and-see.

“With [category five Tropical Cyclone] Yasi [in 2011] we got the direct hit so we knew the farm was going to be on the ground so it was just about making sure everyone was safe.”

Barefoot on Bedarra caretaker Jeffrey Ball was stranded on Bedarra Island, near Mission Beach, as showers set in and winds picked up to 30-35 knots. He might not get back to Cairns for days.

“It keeps getting worse, the seas are getting bigger. If it keeps tracking the way it is we’ll probably be out of here by Wednesday,” he said.

“Worst thing is the boat – we got a boat here on a mooring, if the wind changes where the boat is anchored it could get a bit messy.”

Marine Hotel owner Margaret Power said she had seen two hours of heavy rainfall in Cardwell, 140 kilometres north-west of Townsville.

“We’re preparing the best we can at the moment because we really don’t know what’s going to happen tonight, so we’ve just tied everything down,” she said.

“We’ve got sandbags everywhere for the rain … I don’t think we’re going to get the brunt of it.”

Townsville mayor Jenny Hill said the cyclone was expected to make landfall between Hinchinbrook Island and Lucinda, before turning north and heading towards the Gulf Country.

“Townsville’s coastline is about 100 kilometres, so areas such as Rollingstone and Paluma [north of Townsville] in that area of the northern beaches will need to be on alert, whereas other areas such as Cungulla and Nome [south of Townsville] may not feel the effects of this weather event,” she said.

Cr Hill called on the weather bureau to have a local meteorologist available to speak to keep the north Queensland community informed.

“There’s no local voice on radio, on TV or in the media so what you get is a heightened anxiety … We’ve got to try and do the stand-ups and calm the community,” she said.

We know we have two meteorologists currently working for Defence [department] here, why can’t we have access to them at time like this?”

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Woolworths far north Queensland operations manager Gary O’Donnell said the supermarket chain was rallying ahead of the extreme weather event.

“We have well established emergency relief plans to ensure we can continue delivering the key essentials to our customers during the cyclone season,” he said.

“We’ve ordered plenty of additional stock including water, long-life milk, baby formula, tinned food and nappies.”

A Coles spokeswoman said the supermarket chain would bring forward deliveries for affected stores.

“[This is] to increase stocks of essentials to help our customers prepare,” she said.

“We also make sure the stores have extra non-perishable items such as extra water, UHT milk, baked beans, spaghetti, nappies, toilet paper and other essentials.”