HURRICANE LARRY IS NOW THE STRONGEST STORM TO REACH THIS PART OF QUEENSLAND SINCE 1971.

A North Queensland blogger describes the pre-cyclone panic : (she went out to stock up on essential supplies)...."and I walked right into CYCLONE PANIC!!....People were pushing and shoving to get at supplies. But here is my question. If you're stocking up for three days of power failure, why are you buying icecream?? A worker was standing at the battery section just filling up the shelves, which were being emptied as fast as they were filled. People had trolleys full of cans of coke (ever so essential) and toilet rolls.

"The eerie thing about the cyclone is that, until about a minute ago, the air was dead calm. Overcast and REALLY humid, but not a breath of wind. Now there are gusts that will slam a door, but that dies off really quickly. We're getting hourly weather updates on tv now."