Up close and personal with a category 5 cyclone [Cyclone Yasi Stream]

Recorded Earlier in the day by SkyCam

Home webcam from Townsville resident’s backyard

Live video by Ustream

Home webcam facing street

Live Broadcasting by Ustream

Streaming live video by Ustream

If you ever wondered what it looked like to be inside a category 5 storm, this is it – a live feed from Townsville, Australia where they are about to be hit by Cyclone Yasi. Coastal residents have been advised that it is now too late to evacuate and that they should take shelter in the safest room of their house with mattresses, food and water.

To give you an idea of scale, the storm area covers a little less than the area of the United States and wind speeds when it makes landfall are expected to be around 295 325 kmph.

All the best to those affected.

Update: Townsville SkyCam is now offline, but two webcams are up (for now) they don’t allow embedding, so just click “OK” on the screen for the video that you want to see. Thus far, the SkyCam footage has been the best we have seen – two recordings have been placed at the top while we wait for them to return.