Updated on
Summary
One of the most powerful cyclones on record slammed into Australia's coast on Thursday, uprooting trees, tearing off roofs and bringing down power lines but there were no reports of deaths.Cyclone Yasi, packing winds of up to 300 km an hour near its core, come ashore along hundreds of kilometers of northeast coastline late Wednesday. Mines, rail lines and coal ports have been shut, with officials warning the storm could drive far inland, hitting mining areas of Queensland State struggling to recover from recent devastating floods. Queensland accounts for about a fifth of Australia's economy and 90 percent of its steelmaking coal exports but the extent and of the damage might not be known for many hours. The eye of the cyclone crossed the coast close to the tourist town of Mission Beach at around midnight. Police received numerous reports of widespread damage but no reports of injuries of deaths, a local newspaper said on its Website. Yasi was rated a maximum-strength category five storm and drew comparisons with Hurricane Katrina which wrecked New Orleans in 2005. Almost everyone in the storm zone was bunkered down at home or in cyclone shelters and many communities were without power. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated in the hours before the storm struck.
