Yasi is hurtling towards the Queensland coast. (ninemsn graphic)
Queensland is bracing for the most severe cyclone to hit the state in living memory, with gale-force winds upwards of 300km/h expected to devastate a vast stretch of highly-populated coastline.
People in the state's far north are bunkering down ahead of the 500km-wide, category five Cyclone Yasi, which will make landfall between Cairns and Townsville — most likely near Innisfail — about 10pm (AEST).
But the cyclone's destructive weather is due to begin as early as midday (AEST) today — and may not weaken for another 24 hours. "Frankly, I don't think Australia has ever seen a storm of this size, this intensity in an area as popular as this stretch of our coast," Queensland Premier Anna Bligh told ABC.
Farmhouses in the picturesque Bangara farm district, near Bundaberg in Queensland. Picture by Lyndon Mechielsen Source: The Australian
THE sugar industry in Australia, the world's third-largest exporter, is facing one of its biggest ever disasters in the next 24 hours as Tropical Cyclone Yasi bears down on the prime growing and milling region on the country's northeastern coast.
Yasi will add to the woes of an industry that was battered by poor weather and floods through the key harvesting and crushing period in the latter half of 2010, and it will further affect Queensland, which has only just started to recover from deadly and devastating flooding in southern and central regions over the past month.
At time of publication, Yasi was rated at the highest category-5 level, with winds exceeding 280kph. Yasi is expected to cross the coast between Cairns and Townsville in Queensland around 1300 GMT, after intensifying while travelling westward through the Coral Sea.
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