‘ Monster’ cyclone Debbie batters northeast Australia

A “monster” cyclone smashed into northeast Australia Tuesday, cutting power, damaging buildings and uprooting trees, with coastal residents battling lashing rain and howling winds.

Great Barrier Reef islands popular with foreign tourists were battered by the category four storm which slammed into the coast of Queensland state with destructive wind gusts of up to 270 kilometers per hour near its broad core.

There were fears its arrival would coincide with early morning high tides and cause severe flooding, but it slowed before making landfall between the towns of Bowen and Airlie Beach in the early afternoon.

By late evening it had been downgraded to category two and was expected to weaken further. At least one person was seriously injured, but the extent of damage was not expected to be known until daybreak with conditions too dangerous for emergency crews to venture outside despite hundreds of calls for help.

“At first light tomorrow, we’ll be sending people in to do a rapid assessment of the dam- age,” said Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, with flash flooding and still powerful winds making it hard to do this at night.

“Everyone is going to be in shock tomorrow, just to see the full impact of this cyclone. I’m bracing myself for it.”

The federal government said it was on standby to help with the clean- up, with soldiers, helicopters and planes ready to mobilize.

The effects of the storm were felt across a huge swathe of coast that would span the distance between London and Berlin, although not all areas were badly hit.

“It felt like we were underneath a freight train for most of the night, strong bass rumbles as the ... wind rattled past and made the buildings shake,” Cameron Berkman, who is holidaying on Hayman Island, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Queensland politician Mark Ryan said it was also chaotic at Airlie Beach, the mainland holiday gateway to the Whitsunday islands.