´Monster´ cyclone Debbie batters northeast Australia

AYR, Australia: A "monster" cyclone smashed into northeast Australia Tuesday, cutting power, damaging buildings and uprooting trees, with coastal residents battling lashing rain and howling winds.

Great Barrier Reef islands popular with foreign tourists were battered by the category four storm which slammed into the coast of Queensland state with destructive wind gusts of up to 270 kph (167 miles) near its broad core.

There were fears its arrival would coincide with early morning high tides and cause severe flooding, but it slowed before making landfall between the towns of Bowen and Airlie Beach in the early afternoon.

By early morning Wednesday it had been downgraded to a tropical low system.
At least one person was seriously injured, but the extent of damage was not expected to be known until daybreak with conditions too dangerous for emergency crews to venture outside despite hundreds of calls for help.

The federal government said it was on standby to help with the clean-up, with soldiers, helicopters and planes ready to mobilise.

The effects of the storm were felt across a huge swathe of coast that would span the distance between London and Berlin, although not all areas were badly hit.

The Bureau of Meteorology, which forecast up to 50 centimetres (20 inches) of rain, urged people to stay calm but not be complacent.

Palaszczuk, who called the storm a "monster", said at least 45,000 homes were without power with communications down in many areas and hundreds of schools and childcare centres closed.

People sandbagged and boarded up homes after warnings to prepare for the worst weather to pummel the state since Cyclone Yasi in 2011, which ripped houses from their foundations and devastated crops.

Yasi, which struck less populated areas, caused damage estimated at Aus$1.4 billion. Debbie has officially been declared a catastrophe by the Insurance Council of Australia, allowing them to prioritise claims from the disaster.

Some 3,500 people were evacuated between the towns of Home Hill and Proserpine, around 100 kilometres (62 miles) south of Townsville, a tourist hotspot and access point to the Great Barrier Reef.

Another 2,000 people in Bowen also moved, officials said, with many camped in cyclone shelters. Up to 25,000 more in low-lying parts of Mackay headed to higher ground.

In the small town of Ayr, the main shopping street was deserted with buildings boarded up.