Huge Australia cyclone threatens crops, tourist towns

CANBERRA,  (Reuters) – Australia evacuated northeast  coastal communities yesterday as a massive cyclone bore down on  key tourism, sugar and coal mining areas, with officials warning  the powerful storm could sweep far inland into areas already  devastated by recent floods.

Cyclone Yasi is expected to generate winds of up to 280 kph  (175 mph) when it hits the Queensland state coast late tomorrow or early Thursday, putting it on a par with Hurricane  Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005.

With a strong monsoon feeding Yasi’s 650 km-wide front, the  storm was also expected to maintain its intensity long after  crossing the coast and could sweep inland as far as the outback  mining city of Mt Isa, the weather bureau warned.

“This storm is huge and life threatening,” Queensland  Premier Anna Bligh told reporters.

Queensland, which accounts for about a fifth of Australia’s   A$1.3 trillion economy and 90 percent of steelmaking coal  exports, worth A$20.5 billion ($20.4 billion), has endured a  cruel summer, with floods having swept the eastern seaboard over  the past month, killing at least 35 people.

“There’s no time for complacency,” Whitsunday area Mayor  Mike Brunker told local media. “People in low-lying areas are  evacuating to friends and family or, if they have to, leave  town.” The Whitsunday islands are a popular tourism area close  to the Great Barrier Reef.

The popular tourist state, home also to the country’s main  sugar industry, bore the brunt of the floods and now risks being  battered by Yasi, which authorities said could be the most  powerful tropical storm to ever hit the area.

Island resorts in the Whitsundays and parts of the tourism  hubs of Cairns and Townsville were being evacuated along with  other areas in the danger zone, between Cooktown in the north  and extending south as far as Proserpine, near Mackay.

“This is not a system that’s going to cross the coast and  rapidly weaken out,” Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster  Gordon Banks said, warning winds could reach up to 280 kph and  the storm could reach Mt Isa, 900 km inland.

“We could see this system pushing well in across northern  Queensland as a significant tropical cyclone with damaging winds  and very heavy rainfall,” Banks said.

Australia’s largest coal freight company, QR National   , temporarily suspended operations on two rail networks  in preparation for the front, the company said.

Its major Goonyella network, feeding into the coking-coal  export terminals of Dalrymple Bay and Hay Point, and its smaller  Newlands line were suspended on Monday night, a spokesman said

The state’s coal mines are mostly inland and are still  struggling to pump water out of their pits after flooding. The  Queensland Resources Council, an industry body, estimated coal  miners would take until March to return to normal, even without  the impact of cyclones.

Queensland Premier Bligh said Yasi could be the worst  tropical storm the state had seen, with potential to cause  “powerful and deadly” flash flooding in coastal areas. Ports  were closed between Cairns and Mackay.

Last month’s floods swamped around 30,000 homes, destroyed  roads and rail lines and crippled Queensland’s coal industry,  with up to 15 million tonnes of exports estimated to have been  delayed into the second half of this year.

Cyclone Yasi is expected to classified a high “category 4”  by the time it reaches the coast. That is the second-highest  category and would be around the same strength as Hurricane  Katrina and the strongest to hit Australia since early 2006.

Cyclone Larry devastated the town of Innisfail and  surrounding communities in 2006, levelling sugar crops. Yasi  could threaten around a third of the state’s sugar cane crop, an  industry official said yesterday.