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Cyclone thrashes Australian coast

Australia's remote northwest shore was lashed by 250kph winds as a severe tropical cyclone began crossing the coast yesterday from the Indian Ocean, the government weather authorities said. There were no immediate reports of substantial damage.

Cyclone Glenda first hit land along the sparsely populated Pilbara coast of Western Australia state, about 1,000km north of the state capital, Perth, at about 4pm local time, Bureau of Meteorology manager Grahame Reader said.

The cyclone was expected to take several hours to pass over land -- where its destructive energy was expected to dissipate quickly because its south-south-west course was running almost parallel to the coast, Reader said.

Onslow, a fishing town of more than 800, was likely to bear the brunt of the cyclone's force, Reader said.

Emergency officials said torrential rains and a storm sea surge of up to 10m driven by Cyclone Glenda would bring widespread flooding to a region already soaked by weeks of storms.

Several hundred people evacuated low-lying areas around the massive oil and ore shipping hub of Karratha before authorities issue a "red alert" early yesterday and ordered remaining residents to take shelter rather than flee.

Emergency services spokesman Jim Cahill said extreme winds were making the situation dangerous for residents.

"If people haven't evacuated by now, it's probably too late," Cahill said.

Mardie cattle station manager Richard Climas said his experience of numerous cyclones had left him hoping he was directly in Glenda's path.

"You're probably better off with a direct hit. If it just misses you, you get that side wall of wind," he said.

At 9:50pm, Glenda was classified as a severe category four cyclone on a scale of five and was bearing down on the coast of the Pilbara region at a speed of 14kph, the meteorology bureau said.

Meteorologists said Glenda had intensified slightly as it approached the coast and was rated very dangerous, nearly as powerful as Cyclone Larry which devastated towns on Australia's far northeastern coast 10 days ago.

Neil Bennett of the Western Australia Tropical Cyclone Center said Glenda was comparable in destructive power to Cyclone Bobby, which killed seven people in the Pilbara in 1995.
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