Australia evacuated thousands of people from its north-east coast on Tuesday as a cyclone rivalling Hurricane Katrina bore down on tourism towns and rural communities, with officials saying it could even treaten areas deep inland that were ruined by floods last month. Mines, rail lines and coal ports were closed in Queensland state as Cyclone Yasi headed towards the coast.
Up to a third of Australia's sugar crop was also under threat, officials said. "This storm is huge and life threatening," Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said, warning the system was intensifying and picking up speed on its path from the Coral Sea, with destructive winds expected from Wednesday morning.
Cyclone Yasi is expected to generate winds of up to 280 kph (175 mph) and bring heavy rain when it hits the northern coast of tropical Queensland state late on Wednesday, matching the strength of Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005. The Bureau of Meteorology upgraded Yasi to a category four storm on Tuesday evening and said its very destructive winds would pose a serious threat. Sea levels would rise significantly as it crossed the coast, the bureau said on its Website.
With a strong monsoon feeding Yasi's 650 km (400 mile) wide front, the storm was also expected to maintain its intensity long after smashing into the coast and could sweep inland as far as the outback mining city of Mt Isa, 900 km (600 miles) inland.
More than 400,000 people live in the cyclone's expected path, which includes the cities of Cairns, Townsville and Mackay, which are also main tourist areas and take in Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The military was evacuating nearly 40,000 people from low-lying coastal areas overnight on Tuesday, officials said.
Queensland, which accounts for about a fifth of Australia's economy and 90 percent of steelmaking coal exports worth about $20 billion a year, has had a cruel summer, with floods sweeping the eastern seaboard over the past month, killing 35 people.
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