Relieved and thankful. That was the reaction yesterday from several former Otago residents who escaped unscathed as Cyclone Yasi, with winds of up to about 290kmh, failed to deliver the devastation expected in north Queensland.
No deaths were reported, despite winds tearing off roofs and toppling trees.
"We dodged the bullets," Damian Philippa, formerly of Dunedin, said yesterday, back at his Cairns riverside home after a wakeful night at a friend's house.
He had expected his home to be inundated by a predicted tidal surge which did not eventuate.
"We've got a huge mango tree in our back yard and there are lots of leaves in the swimming pool. That's about it ... we've been very, very lucky."
He did not sleep on Wednesday night, staying awake to watch and listen as the storm approached. The worst period was from about 12.30am to 3am, when the wind increased in ferocity.
"It sounded like a freight train coming at us from the distance."
Mr Philippa's niece, Nicole Ramsay, and her husband, Ewan, also from Dunedin, returned to their home to find trees and a fence down, a garage door pushed in and minor damage to a vehicle inside the garage.
They had spent the night at the central Cairns apartment of Mrs Ramsay's brother, Luke Philippa.
The cyclone was the first Mr Philippa, a carpenter living in Cairns for about three years, had experienced, he said yesterday.
"It was very noisy. There was a lot of creaking and groaning. It wasn't the nicest experience. I've never been through something like that and I don't want to go through it again."
Mr Philippa and his fiancee, Anna Hopkinson, originally from Oamaru, have a 15-month-old son, Isaac, who slept soundly through the night.
Mandy Hambleton, who has lived in Cairns for about 15 years, said she moved out of her apartment near the Cairns waterfront on Wednesday to stay with friends.
Unable to sleep, she listened as the house shook and the wind blew.
"I've been through small cyclones, but nothing like this. It was absolutely massive ... Trees were crashing, the wind was whistling and it sounded like a plane or a train was upon us.
"No-one got any sleep and we hadn't slept the night before either because we were preparing. We're all exhausted."
Luckily, her apartment was not damaged. She was grateful the cyclone was not as bad as had been feared: "It could have been so much worse."
