Australia moves thousands of people from resort islands
Water shortages become part of cyclone aftermath
SYDNEY // Australia began moving thousands of people stranded on resort islands in the tropical north-east yesterday, as water supplies began to run low two days after Cyclone Debbie passed through.
Tens of thousands more people were without power on the mainland of Queensland state, where officials issued more evacuation warnings before heavy rainfall came after the cyclone.
“The rain is coming, significant rain,” said Mark Roche of Queensland’s fire and emergency services.
Cyclone Debbie struck as a category four storm on Tues- day, damaging tourist resorts, bringing down power lines, flattening cane fields and shutting down coal mines in Queensland. The storm, now downgraded to a tropical low, moved over Queensland’s central interior before heading south-east and driving squalls towards the state capital, Brisbane, causing flash floods and prompting the government to close more than 2,000 schools.
Resorts along the Great Barrier Reef and the Whitsunday coast bore the brunt of the storm, with wind gusts strong- er than 260 kilometres per hour.
A naval vessel was expected in the Whitsunday Islands yesterday with water, food supplies and equipment to begin rebuilding infrastructure. Holidaymakers were taken back to the mainland by sea and air.
Authorities said water ran low on Daydream Island after the storm cut off mains supply and bottled supplies dwindled.
Churning seas may have damaged parts of the Great Barrier Reef, marine experts said.
There were fears for the survival of corals in the central and northern areas of the World Heritage-listed marine ecosystem that stretches 2,300 kilometres off the Queensland coast, after two years of mass bleaching from warming seas.