A severe tropical cyclone yesterday lashed northwestern Australia, bringing the strongest winds the country has ever recorded, but officials said towns and cities appeared to have escaped the worst of the storm.
Tropical Cyclone Ilsa made landfall in the early hours yesterday as a Category 5 storm — the strongest on the scale — near the sparsely populated town of Pardoo, about 19 hours’ drive northeast of Perth.
Images from the scene showed the storm’s destructive power, blasting through walls and tearing off the roof at the Pardoo gasoline station.
Photo: Reuters
The cyclone brought a wind gust of 289kph — believed to be the strongest on record in Australia, said Todd Smith, manager of weather services in the Bureau of Meteorology’s Northern Territory Region.
Ilsa also packed an Australian record for the strongest sustained wind speeds over a 10-minute period — averaging 218kph. The previous record was 194kph, set by Cyclone George in 2007.
“It just shows how strong this system was as it approached the coast,” Smith told reporters.
For the region’s largest towns and settlements it was a narrow escape, and they appear to have escaped major damage, authorities said.
“I’ve been told that early assessments in those areas show damage is fairly minimal,” West Australian Acting Emergency Services Minister Sue Ellery told reporters.
The world’s biggest iron ore-shipping hub reopened yesterday after it was forced to close earlier in the week as the cyclone gathered pace above the Indian Ocean.
The cyclone has since been downgraded to Category 2, but authorities remain wary as it barrels inland toward several remote Aboriginal communities and a major gold mine.
The Department of Fire and Emergency Services issued a new series of “red alerts” as the storm swerved inland yesterday afternoon, ordering people to stay indoors until given the all-clear.
“There are several remote communities and mining operations which are yet to be impacted,” Ellery said.
These included the Aboriginal community of Punmu and the Newcrest gold mine in Telfer.
“It is too early to know the impact of the cyclone as it continues to pass through the area,” Newcrest said in a statement.
Tropical storms typically sputter out quickly once they reach land, but Ilsa was forecast to maintain an unusual intensity as it moved across the vast desert Outback in the coming days.
The northwest coast of Western Australia is the most “cyclone-prone region” in the country, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
It also has “the highest incidence of cyclones in the southern hemisphere.”
The region holds significant deposits of iron ore, copper and gold, and is home to some of Australia’s largest mining operations.
Australian researchers have repeatedly warned that climate change amplifies the risk of natural disasters, such as bushfires, floods and cyclones.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed