Giant cyclone hits Australian tourist coast

Cyclone Yasi, packing winds of up to 300 km (186 miles) an hour near its core, come ashore along hundreds of kilometres of northeast coastline late on Wednesday.

Mines, rail lines and coal ports have been shut, with officials warning the storm could drive inland, hitting mining areas of Queensland state struggling to recover from devastating floods. Queensland accounts for about a fifth of Australia's economy and 90 percent of its steelmaking coal exports.

The eye of the cyclone crossed the coast close to the tourist town of Mission Beach at around midnight.

It sounds like a roaring train going over the top of the house. There are trees cracking outside, Hayley Leonard told Seven Network television from a concrete bunker beneath her home in the town of Innisfail.

Police said there were no reports of severe damage or loss of life but communications to some areas were cut.

Graphic on cyclone's path link.reuters.com/zaq77r

Almost everyone in the storm zone was bunkered down at home or in cyclone shelters. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated in the hours before the storm struck.

A Bureau of Meteorology spokesman said a storm surge of two metres (six feet) above the normal level of the tide had inundated one stretch of coast but some reporters said the surges did not appear to be as severe as feared.

State Premier Anna Bligh said earlier the force of the cyclone was unprecedented.

"I am not going to sugar-coat this. It's going to be a tough 24 hours ... We are still in for the worst," Bligh told a briefing.

"Without doubt, we are set to encounter scenes of devastation and heartbreak ... This cyclone is like nothing else we've dealt with before as a nation."

Yasi is a maximum-strength category five storm and has drawn comparisons with Hurricane Katrina which wrecked New Orleans in 2005.