DEADLY STORM: A night of terror waits just over the horizon from North Queensland in this satellite picture from the Japan Meteorological Agency which was taken at 6pm yesterday.

DEADLY STORM: A night of terror waits just over the horizon from North Queensland in this satellite picture from the Japan Meteorological Agency which was taken at 6pm yesterday.

CAIRNS is slowly beginning to feel the impact of Cyclone Yasi.

With the category 5 cyclone set to smash its way across the coast in coming hours, City Life Magazine journalist Angeline Foong reports the wind is starting to pick up and signs of the approaching front are becoming more obvious.

"It's really starting to be constant, now," she said by phone.

"You can hear it quite loudly and feel it now.

"It's really starting to ramp up. Trees across the road are buckling and swaying but apartments are still lit up so we haven't lost power yet.



"There's a strong wind but it's nothing you'd panic about unless you knew a cyclone was coming.



"It's almost like a woman going into labour.

"You prepare for it, you know it's coming but now the scary stuff is happening."



"But what we are seeing on TV is incongruous. At the moment for us it's just a bit of wind and rain."