after one of the world's most powerful cyclones spared the nation's
northeast coast from expected devastation on Thursday, with no
reported deaths despite winds tearing off roofs and toppling trees.
Cyclone Yasi, roughly the size of Italy and packing winds of up to
around 300 km per hour (186 miles per hour), threatened Australia with
its second major natural disaster in as many months this week but
ended up missing heavily populated areas.
"It's amazing no-one was killed. The wind was howling like a banshee,"
said farmer Nathan Fisher, speaking out the window of his
four-wheel-drive vehicle as he returned to his property from a shelter
in the small town of Innisfail.
Australia, a vast continent with less than three people for every
square km, is one of the few countries where a storm as large and
terrifying as Yasi -- with a diameter of up to around 500 km (310
miles) -- could simply miss major cities.
Even as Yasi began its 1,000 km (620 mile) inland march into the
outback on Thursday, weakening all the time, tracking forecasts showed
it was likely to hit only a handful of small towns in a region home to
around 400,000 people.
The lack of any major damage or substantial casualties was also
attributed to several days of cyclone preparation, early evacuations,
laws that ensure newer homes and buildings are strong enough to
survive a cyclone, and less than expected sea flooding as the cyclone
missed the peak tides.
The cyclone came ashore around midnight along hundreds of km of coast
in Queensland state and then drove inland, bringing heavy rains to
mining areas struggling to recover from recent devastating floods.
"Early reports have given us all a great sense of relief," Queensland
Premier Anna Bligh told reporters, adding the cyclone emergency was
still unfolding.
Click image to see photos of the cyclone aftermath
AP Photo/Rick Rycroft
"Some people in this region will be going back to their communities,
going back to their neighborhoods, and facing scenes of considerable
devastation."
Yasi was rated a maximum-strength category five storm, on a par with
Hurricane Katrina, which wrecked New Orleans in 2005, killing 1,500
people and causing $81 billion in damage.
It was downgraded to a category-two storm as it moved inland but its
core remained very destructive, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
The biggest impact could be on the economy. Sugarcane crops had been
damaged, with initial estimates suggesting around 15 percent of the
national sugar crop could be lost. The industry estimated that one
area, accounting for about a third of the crop, had suffered up to 50
percent losses
Australia is the world's third largest raw sugar exporter.
Some coal mines remained shut after the cyclone passed, although
others were starting to resume operations. Queensland accounts for 90
percent of Australia's steelmaking coal exports.
TOURIST AREAS HIT, TREES SNAPPED
The eye of the cyclone crossed the coast near the tourist town of
Mission Beach, where devastating Cyclone Larry struck in 2006, and
damaged areas around Tully and Cardwell, where many older homes, built
before tougher building codes were applied, suffered severe damage.
Authorities said initial reports suggested only about 100 houses had
suffered major damage. There were no initial reports of serious
injuries.
Hills around Tully were covered in snapped trees and scoured almost
clean of vegetation by the force of the wind. The main road into Tully
was flooded and several houses had roofs torn off, with crumpled tin
lying in flooded fields.
At Innisfail, Bill Biscow stood in flood waters and cleaned up roofing
shredded by the storm. "It was scary, but the damage is not as bad as
last time when the place got flattened. Cyclone Larry probably blew
away the oldest buildings."
In the coastal hamlet of Cowley Beach, steel roofs were torn from
houses and twisted around power poles.
"I've been in the area for a long time and I've seen many of these,
but this one is the biggest I've ever seen," said 84-year-old Robert
Hurst, cleaning up his still-intact house.
Another resident, Maria Cook, returned from an emergency shelter to
check on her home on the outskirts of Innisfail.
"I'm going to have to use a chainsaw to cut past trees and to get back
inside my house," she said.
A weather bureau spokesman said a storm surge of two meters (six feet)
above normal tides had inundated one stretch of coast but the surges
were not as severe as authorities had feared.
The cyclone had cut electricity to around 200,000 homes, but main
links to the power grid remained intact.
Queensland has had a cruel summer, with floods sweeping across it and
other eastern states in recent months, killing 35 people and causing
damage estimated at $10 billion or more.
$1=0.9888 Australian dollar)
(Additional reporting by Amy Pyett and Bruce Hextall in SYDNEY)
(Writing by Ed Davies and James Grubel; Editing by Dean Yates)
