Strong cyclone batters Australia with rain, wind

SYDNEY - Howling winds, heavy rain and huge seas pounded Australia's northeast on Tuesday, damaging homes, wrecking jetties and cutting power to thousands of people as Tropical Cyclone Debbie tore through Queensland state's far north.

Wind gusts stronger than 260 kilometers per hour were recorded at resorts along the world-famous Great Barrier Reef as the powerful cyclone made landfall as a Category 4 storm, one rung below the most dangerous.

It was later downgraded to Category 3. Forecasters said high winds could persist for as long as 10 hours, although the storm would then weaken rapidly and was expected to be downgraded to Category 1 before dawn on Wednesday.

Police said one man was hospitalized after a wall collapsed at Proserpine, about 900 km northwest of the Queensland capital, Brisbane.

The weather was too bad to assess damage or mount an emergency response.

"We will also receive more reports of injuries, if not deaths. We need to be prepared for that," Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said in Brisbane.

Cyclone Debbie made landfall at Airlie Beach, north of Proserpine, about midday, knocking out phone service.

"It's very noisy: Screaming, howling wind," Jan Clifford said in a text from Airlie Beach as the storm made landfall.

"Still blowing like crazy," she said four hours later.

Authorities had urged thousands of people in low-lying areas to flee their homes on Monday, in what would have been the biggest evacuation in Australia since Cyclone Tracy struck the northern city of Darwin on Christmas Day, 1974.

Torrential rain flooded streets and wind smashed windows, uprooted trees and tossed debris through streets, while jetties at Airlie Beach marina were wrecked, Nine Network images showed.

Power was cut for 48,000 people in a wide area between the towns of Bowen and Mackay, north and south of Airlie Beach, Ergon Energy spokesman John Fowler said.

Ports at Abbot Point, Mackay and Hay Point were shut, and Townsville airport was closed. Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia airlines suspended all flights to and from the region and said planes could also be grounded on Wednesday.

BHP Billiton and Glencore halted work at their coal mines in the storm's path.

The Insurance Council of Australia declared Cyclone Debbie a catastrophe, making it easier to file claims, but said it was too early to estimate the cost of damage.

With an eye 50 kilometers wide, the cyclone earlier damaged resorts, eroded beaches and tore boats from moorings in the Whitsunday Islands, guests said by phone.