CAIRNS, Australia – Metal roofing littered streets, wooden houses lay in splinters and banana plantations were stripped bare after the most powerful cyclone to hit Australia in three decades lashed the country’s eastern coast Monday.
No fatalities were reported, and only 30 people suffered minor injuries. But the damage from Cyclone Larry, a Category 5 storm with winds up to 180 mph, was expected to run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Hardest hit was Innisfail, a farming city of 8,500 people 60 miles south of the tourist city of Cairns in northeastern Queensland state. By today the storm was well inland and downgraded to a severe low pressure system.
“It looks like an atomic bomb hit the place,” Innisfail Mayor Neil Clarke told Australian television. “It is severe damage. This is more than a local disaster, this is a national disaster.”
Prime Minister John Howard today pledged his administration would help shattered communities rebuild.
“The federal government will give what is needed to get these communities back on their feet,” Howard said. “We just need a day or two to make a proper assessment of how the money can best be spent.”
Innisfail urgently needs accommodation for people whose homes were damaged, a power supply for hospitals and other infrastructure, Clarke said.
There was no official count of the homeless Monday, but given the number of homes badly damaged, the figure could run into the thousands, Clarke said.
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said at least 55 percent of homes in Innisfail had been damaged.
The casualty toll was so low because people left town or went to shelters after authorities posted warnings. Residents and officials were mindful of the damage Hurricane Katrina did to New Orleans and Mississippi in August, said Ben Creagh, a spokesman for Queensland state Department of Emergency Services.
“Everyone here studied Katrina and took a lot of messages away, a lot of lessons at the expense of the poor old Yanks,” Creagh said. “There was absolutely no complacency at the planning level at all, and I think that shows. … Good planning, a bit of luck – we’ve dodged a bullet.”
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