Australian towns shattered by cyclone

AUSTRALIA’S biggest cyclone in a century shattered entire towns after pummelling the coast and churning across the country, terrifying locals but remarkably causing no fatalities.

Exhausted residents emerged to check the damage after Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi hit land at around midnight, packing winds of up to 290km/h in a region still reeling from record floods.

Officials and locals said 90% of the main street in the small Queensland town of Tully, south of Cairns, had “extensive damage”, while the coastal community of Cardwell also suffered “significant devastation”.

“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,” Queensland state premier Anna Bligh said.

But 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.

No deaths or serious injuries were immediately reported, due to what officials said was good planning, strong public warnings and the fact that the storm veered suddenly southwards, away from Cairns, home to 122,000 people.

“This was the worst cyclone this country has experienced, potentially, for 100 years and I think that due to very good planning, a very good response... we’ve been able to keep people safe,” state emergency services minister Neil Roberts said.

But Bligh 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,” she said.

Near the storm’s “ground zero”, families had cowered as roofs were ripped from homes, and some 10,500 people huddled in evacuation centres as the storm raged with a roar akin to a jet engine.

“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.

“Before we knew about it, it was gone. It happened that quick,” Torrens said.

Power blackouts darkened 177,000 homes across the region, including the city of Townsville, as emergency workers struggled their way into the worst-hit towns, besieged by large pieces of wreckage, fallen trees and power lines.

Major roads were closed by flooding or storm debris and telecommunications were patchy.

The maximum-category five storm was reportedly large enough to cover most of the US, with winds stronger than Hurricane Katrina, follows widespread flooding in Queensland.

Authorities warned residents to stay in their homes to avoid a second storm surge along the coast. Yasi was downgraded to category one but threatened more towns as it blew inland.