Australians Flee, Jam Shelters Ahead of “Catastrophic” Cyclone

A girl waits in line to enter an emergency cyclone shelter in a shopping mall in the northern Australian city of Cairns. Catagory five Cyclone Yasi, expected to be the most powerful storm to cross Australia’s heavily populated east coast in generations, is expected to make landfall late on Wednesday night. Thousands of residents fled their homes and crammed into shelters in northeastern Australia as the cyclone with a 650 km wide front barreled toward the coastline. –Reuters Photo/Tim Wimborne

SYDNEY: Thousands of people fled their homes and crammed into shelters in northeastern Australia on Wednesday as the most powerful cyclone in the country’s history barreled toward a string of popular tourist cities lining the coast.
Police were forced to turn away people from some shelters which were already full, and engineers warned that even “cyclone proof” homes could be blown apart by winds expected to reach 300 per hour when it hits later on Wednesday.
“We are facing a storm of catastrophic proportions,” Queensland state premier Anna Bligh said after Cyclone Yasi was upgraded to a maximum-strength category five storm.
More than 400,000 people live in the cyclone’s expected path, which includes the cities of Cairns, Townsville and Mackay. The entire stretch is popular with tourists and includes Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
Satellite images showed Yasi as a massive storm system covering an area bigger than Italy or New Zealand, with the cyclone predicted to be the strongest ever to hit Australia.
“All aspects of this cyclone are going to be terrifying and potentially very , very damaging,” Bligh said.
The greatest threat to life could come from surges of water of up to seven metres above normal high tide levels along the coast at the town of Cardwell, she said. The storm is due to hit when the tide is high.