Havoc as Cyclone Debbie hits
AUSTRALIA: Howling winds, heavy rain and huge seas have pounded Australia’s northeast, damaging homes, wrecking jetties and cutting power to thousands of people as Tropical Cyclone Debbie tears through Queensland’s far north.
Wind gusts stronger than 260kmh were recorded at tourist resorts along the Great Barrier Reef as the powerful storm, at Category 4 just one rung below the most dangerous wind speed level, began to make landfall yesterday afternoon.
The storm was travelling southwest so slowly that weather forecasters said cyclone conditions could persist for as long as 24 hours.
‘‘It’s very noisy: Screaming, howling wind ... sounds like a freight train,’’ Jan Clifford texted from Airlie Beach, about 950 kilometres northwest of Brisbane.
Authorities had urged thousands of people in low-lying areas to flee their homes on Monday, in what would be the biggest evacuation seen in Australia since Cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin on Christmas Day, 1974.
Debbie made landfall at Airlie Beach, knocking out telephone services. Torrential rain flooded streets, and the wind smashed windows, uprooted trees and tossed debris through the streets, while jetties at Airlie Beach marina were wrecked.
Power was cut for 38,000 people in a wide area between the towns of Bowen and Mackay, north and south of Airlie Beach, utility Ergon Energy said. Ports at Abbot Point, Mackay and Hay Point were shut, and Townsville airport was closed. BHP Billiton and Glencore halted work at their coal mines in the storm’s path.
A man was injured after a wall collapsed in Proserpine, a town south of Airlie Beach, police said.
The cyclone had earlier swept through the Whitsunday Islands, where tourist resorts were damaged and boats torn from moorings, guests said. Television pictures showed churning seas had washed away beaches.
Debbie is the most powerful storm to hit Queensland since Cyclone Yasi destroyed homes and crops and devastated island resorts in 2011. ‘‘The eye itself is probably 50km across,’’ said senior forecaster Adam Blazak.
A tidal surge was expected to flood low-lying areas near Mackay as the storm whipped up waves and currents and lifted sea levels
Authorities said it was too dangerous to venture outside and assess the damage. Emergency response crews were also hunkered down until the storm blew over.
Holidaymakers tried to make the best of it as they bunkered down in resort buildings.
‘‘Go to the Whitsundays, they said, it’d be fun, they said, beauti- ful weather over here ... if we had a kite,’’ holidaymaker Kurt Moore told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Despite issuing evacuation orders, police said they were not sure how many people had heeded their advice. Only about 400 people went to cyclone shelters as the winds gathered strength, making it more dangerous to venture outside. That did not deter some thrillseeking bodyboarders who paddled out to surf in the heaving seas at Airlie Beach. - Reuters, AP