The most powerful cyclone to hit Australia in decades smashed into the country's northeast coast yesterday, leaving hundreds homeless and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.
Packing winds up to 290kph, Tropical Cyclone Larry tore roofs off houses, uprooted trees, caused power blackouts and terrified residents who had battened down to prepare for the worst.
"It's just like a bomb has gone off, like something went through and just bombed it," said Amanda Fitzpatrick, owner of a motel outside Innisfail, a farming town in Queensland state in the direct path of the storm.
"It was so terrifying, we were all crying," she told ABC radio.
No deaths were immediately reported from the highest-level Category Five storm, which authorities said was losing steam as it made its way inland after hitting the northeast coast at 8am.
But the Great Barrier Reef, which lies off the coast, was probably severely damaged by the storm, a scientist for the UN's World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority said.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said the government and the military would do everything possible to help victims, adding he was "very confident" there would not be chaos like that in New Orleans last year after Hurricane Katrina.
"If any military assets are needed, they will be readily available," Howard told reporters.
Innisfail bore the brunt of the destruction, with authorities reporting many houses destroyed and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crops -- such as sugar cane, bananas and pawpaws -- wiped out.
"I'd say every second building is damaged," State Emergency Service official Alan Green said.
Power blackouts hit up to 50,000 homes and businesses in an area stretching from Cairns to Cardwell south of Innisfail, an official said.
In an echo of the New Orleans hurricane, the local news agency reported that police and locals feared looting could follow the cyclone.
A spokesman for the Goondi Hills Hotel told the agency he already had people trying to steal goods from the extensively damaged building.
Innisfail resident Des Hensler said the cyclone was the most frightening storm he had seen in the 35 years he had lived in far north Queensland.
"I don't get scared much but this is something to make any man tremble in his boots," he said. "There's a grey sheet of water, horizontal to the ground, and [it's] just taking everything in its path."
Officials warned that crocodiles and snakes disorientated by the upheaval would pose a particular danger, and that most deaths and serious injuries from cyclones occurred after the winds had subsided.
"Keep your kids away from flooded drains," said Peter Rekers, spokesman for the disaster coordination center in Queensland. "There are lots of dangers."
Thousands of people had evacuated coastal towns ahead of the storm and major airlines canceled all flights into Cairns and Townsville, the two biggest cities in the region.
Howard, who will visit cyclone-hit north Queensland this week, said he was relieved few people had been injured and none killed.
"Thank heavens it does not appear as though there have been any very serious injures ... fingers crossed, there are no fatalities and no serious injuries. I hope that continues to be the case," he said.
A tidal surge dumped sand and debris on the doorsteps of some houses, and large waves pounded a coastline famous as a departure point for visits to the Great Barrier Reef marine park offshore.
The cyclone was likely to have caused the death of almost all coral which was in the path of the storm's center, said David Wachenseld, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority's director for science.
It was believed to be the most powerful storm to hit Australia since Christmas Day 1974, when Category Four Cyclone Tracy hit the northern city of Darwin, killing 49 people and another 16 at sea.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2