Australia braced for the second powerful cyclone to strike in two weeks as a category-five storm bore down on the country’s west coast, the weather bureau reported. Cyclone Glenda was upgraded to the highest category of tropical storm overnight, meaning it was producing extremely dangerous wind gusts of up to 280 kilometers per hour (174 miles per hour).
Glenda was tracking roughly parallel to the west Australian coast about 300 kilometers out to sea, but was expected to approach land in the mining region of Pilbara later this week, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
“Residents of the central and west Pilbara coast are warned of the risk of very destructive winds with wind gusts exceeding 200 kilometres per hour developing during Thursday as this very dangerous cyclone nears the coast,” the bureau said in its latest weather warning.
Emergency workers in the sparsely populated region, some 1,300 kilometres north of Perth, urged residents to batten down in order to avoid a repeat of the devastation caused by another category-five cyclone, Larry, which smashed into the country’s tropical northeast on March 20.
Larry destroyed or damaged hundred of homes and wiped out banana and sugar cane crops, leaving a damage bill expected to amount to a billion dollars (707 million US).
Thousands of homes are still without power and many schools and businesses remain closed in the worst hit areas of Queensland state nine days after Larry struck.
Source: Agence France-Presse
