What an abnormal week it has been. I've survived my first ever Cyclone! After a Cyclone warning on Sunday (little baby cyclone, that we only got a little bit of rain from), we were keeping our eyes peeled on Yasi, due to hit Wednesday night. Cyclone Yasi grew from a Category 4 to a Category 5 cyclone, that I've heard was bigger than the size of Texas.

Wednesday morning and into early afternoon we prepped our houses and the YWAM centre, bringing in loose things from outside and securing potential "missiles" so they wouldn't be picked up in the winds. We bunkered down and stayed in our houses from about 3 pm onwards, into Thursday. It was fairly off and on for awhile into the evening, but steadily picked up- wind wise, especially. The cyclone wasn't due to hit land until 11 pm-ish at night but we lost power around 9ish.

Got the worst around 2 am and I slept on and off for most of the night. Was a bit scary, honestly. The winds were strong, and I was nervous to not know the damage or what was really happening. We were home-bound until around lunch time Thursday. Moreso just in-case until we got the all-clear. Things were rainy and windy more than normal for most of Thursday with the after effect of things, but really not bad.

Damage wise, at the YWAM centre things were minimal. Some lost trees, lost power, and little bit of property damage (dented fence...) and a bit of water leakage, but nothing not managable. Spent a lot of yesterday cleaning up the yards and different staff houses and then today were able to help out in the community and neighborhood a little. We surprisingly, got power and internet back today and clean water, as well! We were expected a few more days of living in the dark.;-)

The eye of the storm hit about 2 1/2 hours north from us in Townsville and brought a LOT of devestation up there. Pray for people affected there and generally from the cyclone. No one was killed though; Praise the Lord. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. Means so much. God is good...always!

"I survived Cyclone Yasi!" ---