Cyclone smashes Queensland but few injuries
AUSTRALIA: Australia’s army and emergency workers headed to areas of tropical Queensland hardest hit by Cyclone Debbie yesterday, finding roads blocked by fallen trees, sugarcane fields flattened and widespread damage in coastal towns.
No deaths were reported after Debbie tore a trail of destruction through Australia’s northeast on Tuesday as a category four storm, one rung below the most dangerous wind speed level, before being gradually downgraded to a tropical low.
Thousands of people took shelter as tourist resorts along the world-famous Great Barrier Reef and coastal areas were belted with wind gusts stronger than 260kmh. They woke to streets filled with debris.
‘‘It’s been absolutely smashed. You can’t get out or in there’s so many trees down,’’ Jon Clements, who was holidaying on Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays when the storm hit, said. ‘‘There are hardly any leaves left on any trees.’’
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the worst-hit area was the Whitsunday coast and islands, some 900km northwest of the state capital, Brisbane. Water was cut to Daydream Island, where there were 200 guests and 100 staff, she said.
At Mackay, not far from the Whitsunday coast, fences and sheds were blown away, rivers were swollen and high tides and heavy swells still pounded the shore yesterday.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said: ‘‘Nature has flung her worst at the people of Queensland.
‘‘There will be . . . a lot of damage done now to recover, to clean up, to restore power, to make power lines safe,’’ Turnbull said.
More than 63,000 people were without electricity.
Queensland State Emergency Services Assistant Commissioner Peter Jeffrey said there had been ‘‘a limited amount of severe damage’’.
Campbell Fuller, a spokesman for the Insurance Council of Australia, said it was too early to put a dollar figure on the damage.
Hundreds of hectares of sugarcane crops had been flattened, Dan Galligan, chief executive of industry body Canegrowers, said.
Townsville Airport reopened, although airlines Qantas and Virgin said flights to Hamilton Island, Proserpine and Mackay were cancelled. Ports at Abbot Point, Hay Point and Mackay were closed.
BHP Billiton said work remained halted at its coal mines in the storm’s path, as did Stanmore Coal Ltd.
Heavy fain fell over a wide swath of Queensland yesterday as the system moved inland, with flood and poor weather warnings in place statewide.
Only two injuries reported, police said.
One family near Airlie Beach, over which the eye of the storm passed, had a particularly dramatic night. The family welcomed a baby girl who was born inside the Whitsunday ambulance station as the storm raged.
Palasczuk repeated her appeal for people to stay off roads, as emergency response teams try to get in, and ahead of more heavy rain and bad weather caused by the former cyclone.
Bad weather is expected to hit the southeast corner today and Friday, before the rain depression that was cyclone Debbie moves offshore. – AAP, Reuters were