shattered entire towns after striking the coast and churning across
the vast country Thursday, but officials expressed relief that no one
was killed.
Terrified residents emerged to check the damage after Severe Tropical
Cyclone Yasi hit land at around midnight, packing winds of up to 290
kilometres (180 miles) per hour, in a region still reeling from record
floods.
Queensland state premier Anna Bligh warned that 90 percent of the main
street in the small town of Tully, south of Cairns, had "extensive
damage", while the coastal community of Cardwell suffered "significant
devastation".
"Some people will be going back into their communities... and facing
scenes of considerable devastation," Bligh said.
"There are people now that have lost their homes, they lost their
farms, they have lost their crops and they have lost their livelihoods
and I have no doubt that many of them will experience a great sense of
despair."
Regional hub Cairns, a centre for foreign tourists visiting the Great
Barrier Reef, was spared Yasi's worst with problems largely restricted
to fallen trees and minor damage to buildings.
But in small towns further south, families cowered as roofs were
ripped from homes, and some 10,500 people huddled in makeshift
evacuation centres as the storm raged with a din likened to a jet
engine or an express train.
"We were sitting at the kitchen table, we heard a ripping and off came
the roof," said Scott Torrens, 37, who was sheltering with his wife,
three children and father-in-law in the family home near Innisfail.
Click image to see photos of the cyclone aftermath
AP Photo/Rick Rycroft
"Before we knew about it, it was gone. It happened that quick,"
Torrens told AFP.
Bligh said no deaths or serious injuries were immediately reported,
adding that much of the region would be breathing a "sigh of relief"
following dire predictions of widespread catastrophic damage.
But she warned that a full picture was yet to emerge from a group of
worst-hit towns, where communications and road access remained
difficult.
"It's a long way to go before I say we've dodged any bullets. It is
still not safe out on any of those streets... many injuries and
fatalities can occur after the cyclone has passed," she said.
The maximum-category five storm, reportedly large enough to cover most
of the United States and with winds stronger than Hurricane Katrina,
follows widespread flooding that left much of the state under water.
Authorities warned residents to stay in their homes to avoid a second
storm surge along the coast and fallen power lines, as strong winds
howled. Yasi was downgraded to category two but threatened more towns
as it blew inland.
"Surging tides, powerlines that are down, flooding danger and there
are some parts of Queensland that are bracing for the cyclone to come
across land and to still hit," said Prime Minister Julia Gillard of
the ongoing disaster.
"People cannot let their guard down yet. The danger is not over."
Queensland premier Bligh said Tully's hospital had lost its roof,
although its seven patients were safe. Tully cane farmer Vince
Silvestro said the country town resembled a war zone.
"There's so much damage it's just incredible," he told AAP news
agency. "Our crops are completely destroyed... The countryside is
completely stripped, the trees, even the hospital's damaged.
"When I woke up it looked like what it would have looked like in World
World II or something if the city had been bombed."
The storm's size and power dwarfed Cyclone Tracy, which hit the
northern Australian city of Darwin in 1974, killing 71 people and
flattening more than 90 percent of its houses.
It was also twice the size and far stronger than the category four
Cyclone Larry that caused Aus$1.5 billion ($1.5 billion) of damage
after hitting agricultural areas around Innisfail, just south of
Cairns, in 2006.
Queensland, a mining, farming and tourism hotspot, is still battling
to recover from floods which left about three-quarters of the
sprawling state under water, even inundating large parts of its
capital, Brisbane.
