AFP
A cyclone packing winds of up to 230kph hit Australia’s Great Barrier Reef coast last night, officials said, as tens of thousands of people hunkered down amid warnings of devastation.
Cyclone Ita, while downgraded from a maximum level five to a weakening category four storm, still threatened fierce gales around Cooktown, some 1,600km from Brisbane.
Cyclone Ita made landfall at Cape Flattery and was 65km north of the coastal resort of Cooktown, and 230km north-northwest of Cairns about 9pm (1100 GMT).
“(Ita) is crossing the coast near Cape Flattery with very destructive winds to 230kph near the core and gales extending out to 185km from the centre,” the Bureau of Meteorology said.
The storm was moving at 12kph and was “expected to continue moving south-southwest overnight and gradually weaken”.
Nonetheless winds gusting in excess of 125kph were expected to develop between Cape Melville and Cooktown during the night and possibly as far south as Port Douglas this morning.
Gales may extend south to the city of Cairns today, the bureau said.
“It’s still a destructive cyclone which has very strong winds,” Queensland Premier Campbell Newman said, adding that some 9,000 people in Cooktown and to its north were “staring down quite a destructive cyclonic event”.
A total of 30,000 further south were urged to evacuate and a warning zone extended beyond Cooktown, a coastal community of 2,400 people, through the main transit hubs of Port Douglas and Cairns.
Newman warned that homes built prior to 1985 when new building regulations were enacted may not withstand the impact of the storm, and urged residents in the path of the menacing storm to head to local cyclone shelters.
“Anything over 80km (per hour) is dangerous,” Cook Shire mayor Peter Scott told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
“Anything over 80K will put a piece of tin through you and chop your head off, it will lift roofs off, it will make severe damage so the best place to be is staying inside,” he said.
Scott said that in the view of one senior police officer in the area, “the Cooktown you see today won’t be here tomorrow”.
Tropical storms are common in northeast Australia. This one is stronger but not as widespread as the monster Cyclone Yasi system which tore through the region just over three years ago, ripping homes from their foundations and devastating crops.
The Bureau of Meteorology also warned of heavy rainfall possibly leading to flash flooding, and coastal inundation from a storm surge.
The possibility of dangerous surges prompted warnings for people to evacuate parts of Cairns south of Cooktown, with the ABC reporting that 30,000 people had been advised to seek shelter elsewhere.
The power of storm surges was shown in November when Super Typhoon Haiyan pummelled the Philippines with record winds of 315kph, with entire towns wiped out when tsunami-like waves crashed hundreds of metres inland.
Australia is much better equipped to handle natural disasters than its Asian neighbour.
Nevertheless, Premier Newman warned that in the worst-case scenario, storm surges of up to 2m above normal high tides could hit areas including Cairns, depending on the cyclone’s path.
“I want people to know the government has done everything it possibly can and after the event, we’re mobilising to get in and help the affected communities,” he added, while warning that telephone and electricity lines could be down temporarily after the storm passes.
Brendan Cullen, manager of the Sovereign Resort Hotel, one of three hotels in Cooktown, said that locals were used to cyclones and had prepared their homes and businesses by taping up windows and securing debris.
But he said concerns were growing. “We’re worried about it landing right on top of us and the storm surge.
“As far as the general feeling in town, it’s a windy place anyway so it’s not as if there’s a lot of debris lying around,” he told AFP. “At this particular junction there’s a bit of anxiety. It stands to reason that if it comes this way with those winds ... there’s going to be some sort of damage in town.”
