By Renju Jose
SYDNEY (Reuters) – A tropical cyclone smashed Australia’s northwest coast as a category 5 storm, setting new wind speed records, but has largely spared populated regions including the world’s largest iron ore export hub, authorities said on Friday.
Cyclone Ilsa made landfall early Friday morning with the highest intensity rating on a 1-to 5 scale and then moved inland as emergency crews urged several remote communities along the storm’s path to seek shelter and remain indoors.
“Port Hedland … escaped the brunt of the cyclone at this stage. Overnight, we received no calls for assistance,” Western Australia state emergency services Superintendent Peter Sutton told ABC television. “So it appears the larger populated areas have really escaped the damage.”
But Sutton said there were unconfirmed reports of “extensive damage” at some remote towns and that an aerial survey would be conducted as soon as possible.
Port Hedland, the world’s biggest iron ore export point and used by BHP Group, Fortescue and billionaire Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting, closed on Thursday morning after the port authority began clearing berths a day earlier.
Ilsa set a new preliminary Australian ten-minute sustained wind speed record of 218 km per hour (135 mph) at Bedout Island, about 40 km offshore, eclipsing cyclone George’s 194 km at the same location in 2007, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
The storm was downgraded by the weather bureau to a category three system at about 4:00 a.m. on Friday (2000 GMT, Thursday) but officials warned the wild weather can still pack gusts of up to about 200 km per hour (124 mph).
“As it moves inland and the sun comes up, we can expect it to still be a severe tropical cyclone,” the weather bureau’s hazard response manager Shenagh Gamble said.
Heavy bursts of rain are forecast in some areas, likely triggering flash floods. Destructive winds could hit the remote inland mining town of Telfer, where Newcrest Mining operates a fly-in-fly-out gold and copper mine.
(Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
