Power, water shortages as cyclone Ita stalks Australia

sydney — Thousands of homes were without power and residents of worst-hit Cooktown were warned clean water was about to run out as cyclone Ita rolled along Australia’s Barrier Reef coast on Sunday.

Downgraded from a category four to a category one storm after making landfall late Friday, Ita continued to bring heavy weather as it tracked along the coast, with roads, power and water cut and warnings of flash flooding from torrential rain.

Some 16,000 homes were without electricity and several roads were shut due to flooding, according to emergency officials. No deaths or major destruction have been reported.

In Cooktown, which bore the brunt of the storm as it barrelled into the coast, water was rationed to drinking and “minimal” sanitation only, with severe shortages due to storm damage.

“Police are around patrolling now because naturally people say ‘oh, we’ve got the water back, we’ll hose off our house or driveway or whatever’. That can’t happen otherwise we will run out of water this afternoon,” Cook shire council CEO Steven Wilton said. —