Australia braces for "heartbreak" as giant cyclone hits
A view of an almost empty main street in the northern Australian city of Cairns as Cyclone Yasi approaches February 2, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Tim Wimborne
CAIRNS, Australia |
CAIRNS, Australia (Reuters) - One of the most powerful cyclones on record began pounding Australia's northeast coast, threatening popular tourist cities and with people scrambling to find refuge after police turned them away from overcrowded shelters.
Cyclone Yasi, packing winds of up to 300 km (186 miles) an hour near its core, started to come ashore along hundreds of km of coastline on Wednesday night, giving a foretaste of a storm centre described by authorities as "terrifying".
"Tonight we need to brace ourselves for what we might find when we wake up tomorrow morning," Queensland state premier Anna Bligh said.
"Without doubt, we are set to encounter scenes of devastation and heartbreak on an unprecedented scale. This cyclone is like nothing else we've dealt with before as a nation,"
Yasi is a maximum-strength category five storm, on a par with Hurricane Katrina which wrecked New Orleans in 2005.
Its centre is expected to hit land a little after midnight (1400 GMT).
Selwyn Hughes, turned away from a shopping centre acting as a shelter, stood with his family in the centre's uncovered car park and said his only comfort for the moment was in numbers.
"There are so many of us here. Surely they have to do something, find somewhere safer to move us to before it arrives," he said, squatting on a pink suitcase with his five children, aged two to 13.
Engineers warned that Yasi could even blow apart "cyclone proof" homes when its centre moved overland, despite building standards designed to protect homes from the growing number of giant storms.
Bligh said the cyclone could batter the state for up to three days as it moves inland and slowly weakens. She said 37,000 homes have already lost electricity.
The greatest threat to life will likely come from surges of water forecast at up to seven metres above normal high tide levels in the worst-affected coastal areas. Waves of 6.6 metres have already been recorded about 20 kms out from Townsville.
More than 400,000 people live in the cyclone's path, including the cities of Cairns, Townsville and Mackay. The entire stretch is popular with tourists, includes the Great Barrier Reef, and is home to major coal and sugar ports.
In Townsville alone, the storm surge could flood up to 30,000 homes, according to the town's web site. The tourist hub of Cairns also expects its city centre to be flooded.
The military is helping evacuate nearly 40,000 people from low-lying coastal areas, and from the two hospitals in Cairns.
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