Cyclone!!!!!

[The*Empress]

Tropical Cyclone Lashes Australia By MERAIAH FOLEY, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 58 minutes ago



SYDNEY, Australia - A powerful tropical cyclone ripped the roofs off buildings and uprooted trees, tearing across Australia's northeastern coast with powerful winds that kept emergency workers from responding to pleas from terrified residents.


With winds up to 180 mph, Tropical Cyclone Larry smashed into the coastal community of Innisfail, about 60 miles south of Cairns, a popular jumping-off point for the Great Barrier Reef, sending hundreds of tourists and residents fleeing for higher ground.

A Queensland state police spokeswoman at Innisfail said three people had so far been reported injured, including a woman struck by flying glass.

The spokeswoman, who spoke on a condition of anonymity citing agency policy, said residents had been calling the department all morning as gale force winds destroyed houses around them.

Police had not yet been able to venture out and help because the winds were still too strong, she said.

"They just have to stay put. There's nothing we can do for them," she said. "We just told them to wrap themselves in mattresses, blankets whatever they can find and just stay put."

Des Hensler, an Innisfail resident, sheltered alone in a church, up to his ankles in water.

"I don't get scared much, but this is something to make any man tremble in his boots," he told the Seven television network. "There's a gray sheet of water, horizontal to the ground, and just taking everything in its path."

Queensland state Premier Peter Beattie declared a state of emergency.

"It's the worst cyclone we've had in decades," Beattie told the Nine television network Monday.

The Bureau of Meteorology on Monday upgraded the cyclone to a category five — the strongest category possible — shortly before it crossed the coast, but then lowered it to a category four after the storm hit land.

The storm passed directly over Australia's Great Barrier Reef, but there was no immediate word on what damage the reef may have suffered.

As reports flooded in about extensive damage across the northeastern coast, government and emergency officials were meeting Monday in Canberra to discuss sending troops to help clean up the cyclone-stricken area.

"If any military assets are needed, they will be made available," Prime Minister John Howard said.

Howard said he was confident the cyclone would not result in the chaos seen in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Up to 50,000 homes in the region were without power, and were expected to remain without electricity for several days, said Gaylene Whenmouth, a spokeswoman for Ergon Energy Cairns.

"It is still too windy to send crews out to do restoration, but we will be doing that as soon as we can, whenever it is safe to do so," Whenmouth said.

The stretch of coast in the storm's path includes the tourist city of Cairns, popular with international travelers and the starting point for many Great Barrier Reef boat cruises.

Queensland flees Cyclone Larry

Mike Corder in Sydney
Monday March 20, 2006
The Guardian


Residents along parts of Australia's northeast coast were ordered out of their homes yesterday as a tropical cyclone bore down on them, bringing the threat of a devastating storm surge.
The tropical cyclone, named Larry, is a category-4 storm - one below the most severe - and could pack wind gusts of up to 174mph, warned Australia's Bureau of Meteorology.

Frank Pagano, executive drector of Queensland state's disaster and rescue services, compared the potential force of Larry to the category-5 Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged parts of the southern coast of the US last summer killing more than 1,300 people. "This is the most devastating cyclone that we could potentially see on the east coast of Queensland for decades," Mr Pagano said, in Brisbane.


The airline Qantas cancelled flights - one to Cairns and another to Townsville, two towns that might have been in the path of the cyclone, which was expected to hit the coast this morning. "The sea is likely to steadily rise up to a level ... significantly above the normal tide, with damaging waves, strong currents and flooding of low-lying areas extending some way inland," the bureau said.
Peter Beattie, Queensland state's leader, declared a disaster and gave local governments the power to enforce mandatory evacuation. Authorities ordered residents living south of Cairns to flee homes close to the coast.

A Cairns City spokesman said emergency shelters had been set up for people with nowhere to go. "It's most likely thousands of people are evacuating."

Peter Rekers, a spokesman for the Queensland state counter disaster and rescue service, said: "We're likely to see four or five towns being devastated at much the same time."

Mr Pagano warned residents to stay away from areas likely to be flooded, saying water often posed a much higher danger than gale force winds in cyclones.

 

[Beowulf]

Guess it's a bad time to sell kites there. There goes my damnfool investment.

 

[The*Empress]

well... speaking of kite, we need to build a Noah's Ark.

 

[The*Empress]

Aussies Endure Strongest Storm Since '74 By MERAIAH FOLEY, Associated Press Writer
5 minutes ago



CAIRNS, Australia - The most powerful storm to hit Australia in three decades laid waste to its northeastern coast Monday, mowing down sugar and banana plantations with 180 mph winds but causing no deaths or serious injuries.


Innisfail, a farming town of 8,500 located about 60 miles south of the tourist city of Cairns, was hardest hit, and Mayor Neil Clarke estimated that thousands of residents were left homeless.

More than 100,000 people were without power, and the damage was estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Prime Minister John Howard pledged immediate cash handouts to the homeless and said more help would be forthcoming.

"The damage to dwellings is very extensive," Howard told the Nine Network from Melbourne. "Thank heavens it does not appear as though there have been any very serious injuries."

Clarke told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. the local airport was being cleared to house people in tents.

The town's main street was littered with mangled tin and iron roofs and shredded fronds from seaside palm trees.

"It looks like an atomic bomb hit the place," Clarke said. "We won't even have any water to drink by tomorrow."

Cyclone Larry crashed ashore south of Cairns as a Category 5 storm. Cairns is a popular jumping-off point for tourists to the Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral system that runs parallel to the coast for more than 1,400 miles.

Authorities said it was too early to assess possible damage to the reef, visited by nearly 2 million tourists each year.

David Wachenfeld, director of science at the government body that cares for the reef, said the worst-hit area of the reef was not one that was popular with tourists. He said it would recover — though that could take 20 years.

About 30 people were treated at hospitals for minor cuts and abrasions, said Ben Creagh, a spokesman for Queensland state Department of Emergency Services. The human toll was low because people were warned about the cyclone's approach over the weekend and either boarded up their homes and fled or hunkered down or went to evacuation centers in town while the storm raged outside, Creagh said.

"Good planning, a bit of luck — we've dodged a bullet," Creagh said.

The storm was the most powerful to hit Australia since Christmas Eve in 1974, when Cyclone Tracy destroyed the northern city of Darwin, killing 65 people.

By early Tuesday, the storm was moving inland to the west over a remote area of northeastern Australia. It was losing force and had been downgraded to a Category 2 storm.

State authorities declared a natural disaster, and Howard promised immediate payments to families of $720 for each adult and $290 for each child left homeless. Howard indicated that more aid would come after the government assessed the damage.

State Disaster Coordination Center spokesman Peter Rekers warned residents to stay on their guard for deadly animals stirred up by the storm.

"Most of the casualties and deaths resulting from cyclones happen after the storm has passed," he warned. "Keep your kids away from flooded drains, be aware of snakes and crocodiles. Those guys will have had a bad night, too."

Queensland state leader Peter Beattie said 55 percent of homes in Innisfail had been damaged, though rescue and assessment teams were yet to get full access to the swamped region. All roads into Innisfail remained blocked late Monday night.

"We haven't had a cyclone like this for decades, if we've ever had one like it before," he said. "The property damage has been immense."

The storm was so bad at its height overnight that police were unable to venture out and help terrified residents who called to say the winds had ripped roofs off buildings and destroyed their homes.

Des Hensler, an Innisfail resident, took shelter by himself in a church, with water up to his ankles.

"I don't get scared much, but this is something to make any man tremble in his boots," he told the Seven television network.

As emergency services fanned out across the region later to assess the damage, they saw devastation.

Farmers were expected to be among the hardest hit — the region is a major growing region for bananas and sugar cane, and the storm stripped plantations bare. Officials said damage would run into hundreds of millions of dollars.

"It looks like someone's gone in there with a slasher and slashed the top off everything," said Bill Horsford, an Innisfail cane farmer and member of the Cane Protection and Productivity Board.