Two powerful cyclones yesterday pounded Australia and left a trail of destruction with houses ripped apart, trees uprooted and power lines torn down, cutting electricity to thousands of people.
Tropical Cyclone Marcia, a category five storm, slammed into the Queensland coast just after 10pm on Thursday with its landfall coming just hours after Cyclone Lam hit further north.
The category four Lam caused extensive damage to remote Aboriginal communities near Elcho Island, about 500km east of Northern Territory capital, Darwin, including Milingimbi, Ramingining and Gapuwiyak.
Photo: AFP
“Initial indications are that there has been substantial damage, initial reports are the airstrip is still intact but covered with debris,” regional police commander Bruce Porter said of the Elcho Island community, which was without power and water.
“There are downed power lines. There are a number of trees down and many roads are impassable and we do have a number of buildings and houses that have been severely damaged,” he said.
Reports suggested structural damage in Milingimbi and Ramingining, but Gapuwiyak appeared to have escaped the worst, he said.
There were no reports of major injuries, police officials said.
Further south, howling winds and torrential rain had residents hunkering down to wait out the terrifying conditions whipped up by Marcia. Authorities warned of a “calamity” although there were no early casualties.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said there had been “significant damage” in the towns of Yeppoon and Rockhampton, which was still being assessed, with her biggest concern being the number of power lines brought down.
“This poses a significant risk to people,” she said.
The storm landed near Shoalwater Bay, a town of 16,000 people about 670km north of Brisbane. It has since been downgraded to a category three.
Officials forecast Yeppoon to bear the brunt of the storm’s eye, but Palaszczuk said it only “grazed” the town en route south toward the much bigger Rockhampton, home to about 80,000 people.
Despite this, there was extensive damage to property in Yeppoon with roofs torn off and some homes virtually destroyed, and more than 30,000 people left without power in the region.
“I don’t care about the house whatsoever — our family’s here so we can start again,” Simone O’Leary told reporters from an evacuation center in the town. “We’re all safe and that’s all that matters.”
Images posted to the Australian Broadcasting Corp’s Web site showed what appeared to be the remains of small homes which had crumbled into the ocean as big seas eroded the beach on Great Keppel Island, off Yeppoon.
“Three houses have gone into the ocean,” island resident Margaret Gearin told the broadcaster.
Roiling seas, a deluge of rain, and gusts of up to 295kph were experienced along the central Queensland coast with a storm surge predicted to raise sea levels 3m higher than normal.
The storm was weakening as it headed south, but still packing a powerful punch with the impact being felt over a wide area with power lines and trees down across Rockhampton, local officials said.
Residents as far away as Brisbane sandbagged their homes and cleared yards of objects that could be whipped away by the wind, while Australia’s Channel Nine network showed images of a shark washed ashore by the waves.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not