Queensland is on disaster alert as monster storm Tropical Cyclone Ita, now a category five system, bears down on far north Queensland
CATEGORY-FIVE Cyclone Ita has been likened in sheer destructive force to Typhoon Haiyan that last year wiped out parts of South East Asia killing thousands in the strongest wind speed ever recorded.
Premier Campbell Newman has warned if the colossal tropical cyclone tracks south today it could impact tens of thousands of people in Port Douglas, Mossman and Cairns with the threat of tsunami-like storm surge.
Mr Newman toured Cooktown and Hope Vale as Cyclone Ita last night bore down on the far north Queensland frontier.
A third of the houses in the township of 700 homes and 2300 residents are deemed "vulnerable''.
"We urge people to ... protect themselves and their families right now,'' Mr Newman said.
He said high winds, storm surge and flash flooding under hundreds of millimetres of rain posed a deadly threat.
Cyclone Ita has been upgraded to a category 5 system and is due to cross the north Qld coast tomorrow.
Mr Newman said about 9000 people would be directly impacted in the Cooktown, Laura and Hope Vale region with a predicted storm surge with two metres of water on top of the highest high tide mark.
"But if it tracks south towards Port Douglas, Mossman, and Cairns, then we have many thousands of people and the threat of the impact of storm surge is a very real concern.''
Cooktown's Top Pub manager Michelle Thompson, whose family bought the hotel a week ago, said she was deeply anxious.
"It was built in 1885, and has been through four severe cyclones, and is still standing,'' she said.
"But we just don't know how it will hold up, particularly if we cop a direct hit.''
Police evacuated rural residents into town to the category-five rated shelter.
"What can we do about the cattle, tie them down? There is nothing we can do,'' said property caretaker Shaun O'Brien.
Storm surges and flooding are expected to lash far north Queensland as cyclone Ita brings 280km/h winds.
Coral trout fisherman David Middleton was one of dozens of boat owners tied up on the Endeavour River.
"We just rammed it as far up into the mangroves as we could,'' the skipper said.
"This is Mother Nature at its most awesome and malevolent, she's coming to wipe us out.
Community Recovery and Resilience Minister David Crisafulli urged people to make early decisions.
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Projected path of Cyclone Ita. Source: CourierMail
"Stay at home, stay with friends in a safe place, or go to the evacuation centre.''
The Cooktown cyclone shelter would be shut by noon when winds are predicted to exceed 100km/h.
CYCLONE WILL BE A MONSTER
CYCLONE Ita will barrel ashore late today as one of the nation's most powerful ever storms.
Late yesterday, wind gusts at its centre had surpassed the 280km/hr level needed to rate it a Category 5 storm – the highest on the scale. And forecasters were last night warning Ita was set to "intensify further" before it makes landfall somewhere north of Cooktown early this evening.
Weather Bureau forecaster Pradeep Singh said storms of such size were only rarely recorded.
In 2001 Cyclone Yasi – that destroyed Mission Beach and Cardwell – had gusts to 285km/hr.
Ita was packing the same power late night, but it did not cover such a wide area. Ita's strongest winds were forecast be restricted to within 80km of its centre, while Yasi's were greater than 100km.
Previous cyclones of a comparable intensity include the 1899 Cyclone Mahina at Cape York's Princess Charlotte Bay and two cyclones in 1918 at Mackay and Innisfail.
A category 4 cyclone hit the Innisfail-Mission Beach area in January 1918. After it passed, just 12 houses remained standing in Innisfail – then a city of 3500 – and 22 were dead.
James Cook University cyclone expert Jon Nott said other major cyclones to hit Australia included the category 5 Cyclone Vance that hit WA in 1999 and category 5 Cyclone Monica that hit Maningrida in the NT in 2006.
Cyclone Tracy that hit Darwin in 1974 is probably the most-talked-about cyclone because it cost 65 lives.
It was small, but intense, and it is unclear what category it was because the anemometer at Darwin Airport blew apart after recording a gust of 217km/h.
Prof Nott said although significant, Tracy occurred before strict standards were introduced for buildings.
"There's no way they had the same integrity as those of today," he said.
Brian Williams
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