First death reported from Australian Cyclone
CAIRNS, Australia – Rain and gusts from a weakening cyclone continued to bluster across northeastern Australia on Friday as those caught in the eye of the storm salvaged belongings from wrecked homes and officials confirmed the first death.
Police said a 23-year-old man asphyxiated due to fumes from a diesel-powered generator he was using in a closed room as he sheltered from Cyclone Yasi. Authorities were also searching for two people missing more than 24 hours after the storm struck.
The storm, which hit in the early hours of Thursday, was among the most powerful ever to strike Australia, terrifying thousands of residents and causing widespread damage — though it was not as bad as had been feared.
Power was gradually being restored to stricken towns, and airports in regional centers were reopening. Cleanup teams with chain saws and other equipment were clearing roads. Residents were piling up roofing sheets and debris torn free by the storm, and mopping up homes doused by torrential rains.
Many were still reliving a night of terror.
David Leger recalled the terrifying roar, then a violent bang like something had exploded.
"We gotta go!" David Leger screamed to his father as the cyclone tore the roof off their home, sucking the air up and out of the room like a vacuum.
Leger and his parents scrambled down the staircase, but the house shook violently, sending 83-year-old Francis Leger tumbling down the stairs. The family finally made it to a small room on the ground floor, where they rode out the ferocious storm that slammed into the already flood-ravaged Queensland state.
Click image to see photos of the cyclone aftermath
AP/Rick Rycroft
"We're just thankful," David Leger said later as he slogged across the drenched carpet of their ruined home, water pooling around his sandaled feet. "This is only material."
Residents and officials were amazed that the death toll was not higher. The storm whipped the coast with up to 170 mph (280 kph) winds and sent waves crashing ashore two blocks into seaside communities. Several small towns directly under Yasi's eye were devastated and hundreds of millions of dollars of banana and sugarcane crops were shredded.
Officials said lives were spared because, after days of increasingly dire warnings, people followed instructions to flee to evacuation centers or bunker themselves at home in dozens of cities and towns in Yasi's path.
Hundreds of houses were destroyed or seriously damaged, and the homes of thousands more people would be barely livable until the wreckage was cleared, officials said. Piles of drenched mattresses, sodden stuffed animals, shattered glass and twisted metal roofs lay strewn across lawns in the hardest-hit towns.
The region is considered a tourist gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, but whether the storm caused damage to the reef was not yet known. Experts say that cyclones can cause localized reef damage as they cross over and that under normal circumstances they will recover.
The storm was again downgraded Friday to below cyclone level, but the Bureau of Meteorology warned that it still bore potentially damaging winds of more than 56 mph (90kph) and severe thunderstorms could causeflash flooding.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she hoped to offer some comfort to victims while touring the storm-tossed region Friday.
"I would prefer that my visit to Queensland was for other purposes but we're here because nature's been continuing to throw challenges to Queensland," she said.
The disaster zone was north of Australia's worst flooding in decades, which swamped an area in Queensland the size and Germany and France combined and killed 35 people during weeks of high water until last month.
But the storm added to the state's woes, and was sure to add substantially to the estimated $5.6 billion in damage since late November. The government has already announced a special tax nationwide to help pay for the earlier flooding.
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Online:
Bureau of Meteorology: http://www.bom.gov.au/cyclone/index.shtml
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