Cyclone Yasi crosses coast in North's darkest hour

YASI has slammed into the coast near Mission Beach midway between Innisfail and the evacuated town of Cardwell, 1500km north of Brisbane.

Cyclone Yasi updated

YASI - the first tropical cyclone since 1918 to strike with the maximum intensity of category 5 - has slammed into the coast near Mission Beach midway between Innisfail and the evacuated town of Cardwell, 1500km north of Brisbane.

Tens of thousands of people were cowering in blacked-out homes and emergency shelters early today as the most savage cyclone to strike northern Australia in nearly a century unleashed 285km/h winds, ocean surges and destruction.

Authorities scrambled to pull 75,000 people out of the immediate danger zone that stretched 650km from Port Douglas to the town of Bowen, and threatened the population centres of Townsville and Cairns with tsunami-like storm surges.

Cardwell, population 1200, and the nearby tourist centre of Mission Beach were evacuated in the face of a predicted storm surge up to 7m above the high tide, due about two hours before the cyclone struck at midnight local time (1am AEDT).

Massive waves were recorded in the hours leading up to the cyclone crossing the coast and power was cut to almost 90,000 homes.

Emergency services late last night received the first desperate call for help from a man and four other people, aged in their 60s, who were sheltering in a two-storey apartment building at Port Hinchinbrook, outside Cardwell, that was being engulfed by the storm surge. But there was nothing that could be done to help them because conditions were too dangerous.

"They have been told to go to the second floor and . . . bunker down. There is going to be a storm surge up to the top of the first storey and they are on the second storey," said Disaster Co-ordinator Ian Stewart .

At 11.30pm AEDT, as 100km/h gales blasted Cairns, the sheet metal roof of a commercial building near the CBD was torn off. On the Aboriginal community of Palm Island off Townsville, people were reported to have been moved from an evacuation centre when it lost roofing.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh last night said power outages were escalating, with Townsville the hardest hit, where 40,000 homes were without power. At the time this edition of The Australian went to press, 89,000 homes were without electricity.

"We are seeing a real escalation in the number of houses losing power," Ms Bligh said.

"The Townsville CBD has now lost power. That will mean a significant number of evacuation centres will be without power."

Ms Bligh warned record high seas were to be expected and that waves of 9.5m had been recorded off Townsville, the highest level since measurements began in 1975. Speaking a few hours before the cyclone was due to strike, the Premier warned the nation to brace for "devastation and heartbreak on an unprecedented scale".

Compounding this, the "central spine" of power transmission towers was at high risk, and she said there would be catastrophic electricity failure across north Queensland if they were brought down by the destructive winds.

A sombre Ms Bligh said secondary storm surges could rise in the seas off north Queensland with the high tide due at 9.30am today, adding a new danger to communities pounded by Cyclone Yasi.

"We as as a community, as Queenslanders and Australians, need to brace ourselves for what we might find when we wake up. Without doubt we are set to discover scenes of devastation and heartbreak on an unprecedented scale," Ms Bligh said. "This cyclone is like nothing we have ever deal with before as a nation." With many people defying evacuation orders, despite the presence of soldiers and police, Mr Stewart warned that emergency services might not be able to reach them until the danger had passed.

"My message was simply that everyone has to be a first responder in these situations," Mr Stewart said.

An 11th-hour effort by police and soldiers to doorknock holdout residents in Townsville and Cairns was called off when Ms Bligh declared at 2.05pm, as strengthening gales brought down powerlines and uprooted trees, that "the time for movement and evacuation has passed".

By 8pm, the 9000 residents of the sugar town of Innisfail, devastated five years ago by category 4 Cyclone Larry and facing even worse destruction last night, were locked down under strengthening gale-force winds, preceding the onslaught of Yasi.

More than 10,000 people were bunkering in 20 emergency shelters across the disaster zone, not all of them cyclone-rated.

Plans to have the navy spearhead the massive relief operation, due to swing into action as soon as conditions ease in the strike zone, were thrown into disarray when it was revealed that heavy-lift ships supposed to be available were in fact out of action or unseaworthy.

Ms Bligh had earlier said the heavy-lift ships would be used as platforms for helicopters and other relief operations. About 4000 troops at Townsville's Lavarack Barracks were being mobilised.

Ms Bligh said the use of naval ships as floating operation bases had been pioneered during the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, and was insurance in case facilities on the ground were destroyed by the cyclone or associated sea surges.

However, the most suitable ships, the 8500-tonne amphibious support ships HMAS Kanimbla and HMAS Manoora, are in "operational pause" over seaworthiness and safety concerns. The 5800-tonne heavy landing ship HMAS Tobruk is in heavy maintenance and unavailable for deployment, the navy confirmed.

Julia Gillard, pledging the federal government's full support for the relief effort, said Yasi loomed as the worst cyclone ever to hit Australia. Those in its path faced "many, many dreadful frightening hours", the Prime Minister said.

Ms Gillard paid tribute to the spirit of Queenslanders, who are only just beginning to recover from devastating floods that killed at least 22 people in the past three weeks in the state's southeast, including Brisbane.

Yasi "is a powerful natural force, but the courage of the people of far north Queensland is an even stronger force again", she said.

As Yasi advanced on the coast, the Bureau of Meteorology issued a tropical cyclone warning of unprecedented scale, covering 1100km of the coastline from Cape Flattery, north of Cooktown, to Sarina, south of Mackay.

Astonishingly, the warning also covered inland communities as distant as Mount Isa, 900km west of Townsville. While most cyclones quickly lose intensity once they cross the coast, Yasi was set to thunder on to hit the inland town of Georgetown, 380km west of Cairns, this morning, with category 3 winds of 90-125km/h.

The cyclone is forecast to dump up to 1000mm of rain on coastal and inland areas. As a category 5 system, the highest level for a cyclone, Yasi is expected to pack winds of more than 285km/h.

Ms Bligh declared she had full confidence in the ability of the state to tough out the crisis. "Can Queensland cope? You bet."

Additional reporting: Sarah Elks, Hedley Thomas