BRISBANE, Australia (AFP) - A super cyclone smashed into tropical northeastern Australia, with winds of up to 290 kilometres an hour (180 mph) causing casualties and ripping homes apart, officials said.



Tropical Cyclone Larry hit land near Innisfail in the far north of Queensland state as a top category five, but had since been downgraded to a category four, the Queensland weather bureau said.

It is the strongest cyclone to strike Australia in more than 30 years and was seen as potentially more dangerous than Cyclone Tracy, which devastated the northern city of Darwin in 1974, killing 71 people and leaving 20,000 homeless.

Innisfail police said they had been inundated with calls from terrified residents whose "homes are literally crumbling around them".

"We have roofs flying off in Fly Fish Point, Silkwood and in the city centre," an Innisfail police spokeswoman said. "And we have trees across roads."

Police had been unable to leave the station despite hundreds of calls for help, she said.

"We've had reports of some casualties at Cairns hospital, some 20 or so," weather bureau forecaster Jonty Hall said. "There's also some reports of a few people missing as well."

Queensland state Premier Peter Beattie declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm's landfall late Sunday, opening the way for mandatory evacuations in several coastal areas, where tidal surges of up to two metres (6.6 feet) were expected.

Hundreds of people evacuated coastal towns in the area and major airlines cancelled all flights into Cairns and Townsville, the two biggest cities in the region.

The weather bureau describes a category five cyclone as "extremely dangerous with widespread destruction". It said Larry posed a very serious threat to life and property.

Forecaster Jonty Hall said conditions around Innisfail were "extremely dangerous".

"We're starting to see a very dangerous storm surge come to shore anywhere pretty south of Innisfail down towards Cardwell," he said. "It doesn't get much worse than this."

Local officials said on national radio that Larry's winds had knocked out power in some areas and was toppling trees.

Amanda Fitzpatrick, owner of the Barrier Reef Motel outside Innisfail, told ABC radio under the eye of the storm: "It was so terrifying, we were all crying.

"It's just like a bomb has gone off, like something went through and just bombed it."

Innisfail resident Wayne said: "Whatever trees aren't uprooted have snapped off or have no leaves on them. It's just unbelievable."

Garage roller doors had been "shredded, just shredded. It's really scary stuff".

Innisfail resident Des Hensler said the cyclone was the most frightening storm he had seen in the 35 to 40 years he had lived in far north Queensland.

He said he was sheltering alone in a church with water up to his ankles, "just standing in a place where I'm not going to get killed".

"A tree has just fallen on a house (and there's a) street light actually touching the ground, that's how strong the wind is," he told Seven Network television.

Reflecting the rough and tough attitude of many residents of Australia's tropical far north, he added: "It's just frightening. I don't get scared much but this is something to make any man tremble in his boots.

"There's a grey sheet of water, horizontal to the ground, and just taking everything in its path.

"And believe me, it's taking everything ... it is totally scary."

So far so good. It looks like it wont get any towns. But they're now saying that there's a second cyclone forming just behind it.

althom said:

i heard on the radio this morning that it was pretty bad....

althom said:

i hope you're not in that area

OMG cyclones are scary up there... my best friend's family is all up there in Cairns. they're used to it but it's still scary

I'm gonna give them a call I think

Do we have any orgers in the areas?

mdiver said:

not that I know of... everyone's well and truly down farther south that I know of anyway

Natisse said:

so none of your family or friends?

AndGodCreatedMe said:

yes my best friend's family (who I consider part of my family) are all up there I'll try and get in touch with them late tonight my time and check they're all ok. they're in Cairns so they're farther north a bit than Innisfail but still... in that area the weather can be very wild. I only went through one cyclone in the time I lived up there but it was damn freaky

Natisse said:

that's good to hear sweetheart!!

I do feel sorry for all the ppl that are in the area..

i hope everyone is ok.

AndGodCreatedMe said:

me too... she's always on my mind but especially lately for some reason. I wish there was no time difference so I could call her and them in Cairns now

I'm gonna try and look and see if there are any updates on the net

Cyclone Larry rips across Queensland coast
By Sam Knight and agencies





One of the most powerful storms in living memory struck Australia's Queensland coast this morning, obliterating houses and destroying sugar cane and banana farms, but sparing lives.



Cyclone Larry, a Category 5 storm, came ashore just south of the popular tourist resort of Cairns at 7am local time and tore into the small town of Innisfail, a centre of Queensland's sugar growing industry. No deaths were reported but around 30 people are known to have been injured.

Residents and emergency authorities said that 290kph (180mph) winds wrenched roofs from houses, demolished crops and left roads littered with powerlines and overturned cars. Tourists in Cairns sought shelter in hotels, roads were blocked and 100,000 people lost electricity.

The Australian army is expected in the region this evening to help the clear-up.

"I don't get scared much, but this is something to make any man tremble in his boots," Des Hensler, an Innisfail resident sheltering from the storm told local television. "There's a grey sheet of water, horizontal to the ground, and just taking everything in its path."

Paul Leyton, standing outside his roofless house, told Reuters: "She was howling like a banshee. The walls were getting sucked in and out and making an incredible sound."

Police and rescue workers said nearly half the houses in Innisfail, a town of 8,500 people, had been damaged. The town was also struck by powerful cyclones, the southern hemisphere's equivalent of a hurricane, in 1986 and 1918, when all but 12 houses were wiped out.

"We’ve even seen a few homes that you might as well say have been totally demolished. It looked like they’d exploded," Wayne Coutts, a director of the local emergency services, told reporters.

As Larry headed inland, weakening to a Category 2 cyclone, the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, said the country had been lucky to escape without any fatalities.

"The damage to dwellings is very extensive," said Mr Howard. "Thank heavens it does not appear as though there have been any very serious injuries."

Mr Howard said he would visit the region shortly and that families who had lost their homes would receive an instant grant of A$1,000 (£417) per adult and A$400 (£167) per child.

Meteorologists said that Larry was of a similar size and intensity to Cyclone Tracy, which killed 71 people and flattened 70 per cent of the northern city of Darwin in 1974.

They also warned the battered people of Queensland that Cyclone Wati, the next storm in the season, is currently gathering strength and is expected to follow a similar path to Larry in the coming days.

Early estimates indicated that the storm had caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damage. A 45-minute hailstorm in Sydney in 1999 caused the country's biggest insured loss of A$2 billion (£833 million).


The storm's toll is likely to be felt most keenly by Australia's sugar and banana industries. The northern reaches of Queensland produce 25 per cent of the country's sugarcane and the entire banana crop. Up to 90 per cent of banana trees in the storm's path are believed to have been destroyed.

"We are the tropical fruit bowl of Australia. I would say every tree has been flattened," Neil Clarke, the Mayor of Innisfail, told ABC television. "It looks like an atomic bomb has hit the place."



Government scientists will also explore any damage to the coral of the Great Barrier Reef, which gets buffetted and torn to death by the rough seas and sediment caused during the region's November-April cyclone season. Dead coral takes between 10 and 20 years to replace.

But David Wachenfeld, director of science at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, said that the small eye of the cyclone, just 50km (30 miles) across, meant that extensive damage was likely to be limited.

"The Great Barrier Reef is more than 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) long, so what you’re looking at here is a narrow band of damage going through the middle of a very large area," he told the Associated Press.

My mom was telling me about this yesterday...she wanted me to make sure all of our Aussie Orgers were ok

applekisses said:

your mum sounds like a great person, i miss mine..

AndGodCreatedMe said:

AndGodCreatedMe said:

I love you and miss you, sweetie

AndGodCreatedMe said:

She is... And when I tell her this she'll say that she'll adopt you

talked to my friend earlier tonight... she says everyone is ok but apparently it was a very scary time

Scary scary. I wish everyone well.


M