Tramp
19-03-06, 21:20
Cyclone Larry destroying Qld homes
Monday Mar 20 09:12 AEDT
Category four Cyclone Larry is tearing homes apart as it crosses the far north Queensland coast, with police unable to leave their station to answer desperate calls for help.
The most destructive part of the huge storm has made landfall near the town of Innisfail, south of Cairns, unroofing homes with wind gusts reaching 290kph.
Larry's winds are at least as strong as those Cyclone Tracy unleashed in Darwin in 1974, in a storm that killed 71 people and destroyed more than 70 per cent of the city's buildings, leaving over 20,000 people homeless.
Cyclone Larry was upgraded to a category five storm but has since gone back to a category four.
Innisfail police have been inundated with calls from residents whose homes are "literally crumbling around them".
"We have roofs flying off in Fly Fish Point, Silkwood and in the city centre," a Innisfail police spokeswoman said.
"And we have trees across roads."
She said most of the destruction was occurring in the regions just north-east of the town.
Police had been unable to leave the station, despite hundreds of calls for help, she said.
Callers were very scared.
"Homes are literally crumbling around them," she told AAP.
Innisfail Hospital director of nursing Leslie Harris said wards had been cleared to make way for possible cyclone victims.
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie says Cyclone Larry is expected to be more powerful than Cyclone Tracy, which devastated Darwin in 1974.
"This cyclone is a category five now and compared to Tracy, which was also a category five ... the heart of Tracy was 47 kilometres, this is 100 kilometres and the front itself is 300 to 400," Mr Beattie told the Nine Network.
"So we are very concerned about it, it's the worst cyclone we've had in decades."
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/img/logo_aap.jpg
İAAP 2006
This is happening right now. The eye has passed and they are coping the second half.
http://www.bom.gov.au/gms/IDE00006.200603192130.gif
See the second cyclone forming off the Queensland coast on the right hand side.
Monday Mar 20 09:12 AEDT
Category four Cyclone Larry is tearing homes apart as it crosses the far north Queensland coast, with police unable to leave their station to answer desperate calls for help.
The most destructive part of the huge storm has made landfall near the town of Innisfail, south of Cairns, unroofing homes with wind gusts reaching 290kph.
Larry's winds are at least as strong as those Cyclone Tracy unleashed in Darwin in 1974, in a storm that killed 71 people and destroyed more than 70 per cent of the city's buildings, leaving over 20,000 people homeless.
Cyclone Larry was upgraded to a category five storm but has since gone back to a category four.
Innisfail police have been inundated with calls from residents whose homes are "literally crumbling around them".
"We have roofs flying off in Fly Fish Point, Silkwood and in the city centre," a Innisfail police spokeswoman said.
"And we have trees across roads."
She said most of the destruction was occurring in the regions just north-east of the town.
Police had been unable to leave the station, despite hundreds of calls for help, she said.
Callers were very scared.
"Homes are literally crumbling around them," she told AAP.
Innisfail Hospital director of nursing Leslie Harris said wards had been cleared to make way for possible cyclone victims.
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie says Cyclone Larry is expected to be more powerful than Cyclone Tracy, which devastated Darwin in 1974.
"This cyclone is a category five now and compared to Tracy, which was also a category five ... the heart of Tracy was 47 kilometres, this is 100 kilometres and the front itself is 300 to 400," Mr Beattie told the Nine Network.
"So we are very concerned about it, it's the worst cyclone we've had in decades."
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/img/logo_aap.jpg
İAAP 2006
This is happening right now. The eye has passed and they are coping the second half.
http://www.bom.gov.au/gms/IDE00006.200603192130.gif
See the second cyclone forming off the Queensland coast on the right hand side.