by Playfuls Staff |
24th April 2006
Tropical cyclone Monica slammed in to Australia's far-north coast Monday and careened westward towards the city of Darwin that 30 years ago was all but obliterated in a storm far less mighty than this one. [more]
Monica, a maximum category-5 cyclone, crossed the Northern Territory coast near the tiny settlement of Maningrida in Arnhem Land.
At Monica's destructive core are wind gusts of up to 350 kilometres an hour. These are expected to slacken off and the cyclone be downgraded now that it has obstacles in its path.
Darwin-based Bureau of Meteorology spokesman Mike Bergin estimated Monica's time of arrival in or near Darwin at late Tuesday afternoon.
"I think it unlikely that she'll be a category-5 by the time she reaches this area - although it's not an impossibility," Bergin said.
Darwin airport is closed to most flights because it's not safe for aircraft to land when wind gusts are very strong.
Darwin supermarkets and shops have been cleaned out of torches, batteries and other items that go into the emergency packs that families have got ready in case they are moved to emergency shelters.
Darwin Counter-disaster Controller Kate Vanderlaan declared that emergency shelters would open before nightfall.
"People should go early so that they're not stuck in a traffic jam or that the winds are galing around them and they feel an apprehension to go," she told national broadcaster ABC.
Cyclone Tracy struck Darwin so hard in 1974 that the federal government considered abandoning its northernmost city. The category-4 cyclone demolished half of Darwin's buildings, killed 71 people and made 20,000 homeless.
Following Tracy, the federal government made it a requirement that new buildings in cyclone-prone areas be made strong enough to withstand tropical storms. For this reason, subsequent cyclones have done less damage.
Weather forecaster Andrew Tupper said Tracy was only a category-4 cyclone, but scored a direct hit on Darwin when its destructive core came right up the city's main street.
"We would be unlucky if that happened again," Tupper said. "On the other hand, because of the size of this cyclone, we are certainly going to be affected by at least gales."
Last month category-5 Cyclone Larry battered far-north Queensland. Innisfail, home to 8,000 people, recorded the most devastation. Every third house was damaged and the sugar-cane fields and banana plantations that ring the town were flattened.
No one was killed in Queensland's worst-ever tropical cyclone, and there were no serious injuries, but the damage bill from Larry was estimated at well over 1 billion Australian dollars (720 million US dollars).
© 2006 DPA
© Image: Station Officer Damien Parker of the NT Fire & Rescue Service warns residents to prepare for the worst as category 5 cyclone Monica approaches Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory, Monday 24 April 2006. The residents of Darwin are on high alert as maximum-strength, category five storm Cyclone Monica, with winds expect to reach 350kph, heads directly for the city. Current expectations are that it will reach Darwin and the Tiwi Islands by tomorrow. EPA/TERRY TREWIN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT
