The Queensland city of Cairns prepared to evacuate hospitals and urged residents in low-lying areas to leave as the Australian state braced for the strongest cyclone since 2006, just weeks after record flooding.
Cyclone Yasi, expected to strike the coast packing winds of up to 280 kilometers (175 miles) an hour, has forced the closure of 300 schools and shut mines, ports and railways. Cairns residents are scrambling to stock up on supplies, with retailers reporting long lines, the Australian Associated Press reported.
"This storm is huge, and it is life-threatening," Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said in Brisbane. "We do have time to prepare, but that time is now and that time is today."
The cyclone is expected to be upgraded from a category three storm today and make landfall early Feb. 3 as "a potentially dangerous cyclone exceptionally large in size," according to the Bureau of Meteorology. It may be more severe than Cyclone Larry, which wiped out most of Australia's banana crop and devastated sugar cane fields almost five years ago.
Two Cairns hospitals will be evacuated today because of the threat of inundation by floodwaters, Bligh said. The Air Force will assist with the movement of 255 patients and hospitals in Brisbane are on alert to provide extra beds, she said.
Tourists in Cairns, the Whitsundays and Townsville, popular centers for cruises in the Great Barrier Reef, are rushing to board flights before the storm closes airports, Deutsche Presse- Agentur reported.
Qantas Flights
Qantas Airways Ltd. will operate two extra flights to Brisbane from Cairns today and provide a bigger plane for a flight to Queensland's capital from Townsville, the company said in a statement on its website.
Qantas budget unit Jetstar said in a statement it will operate seven additional flights, two from Hamilton Island and five from Cairns, providing more than 1,200 additional seats to people seeking to leave the region.
Queensland is beginning a recovery effort estimated to cost at least A$5 billion ($5 billion) as its economy prepares for slower growth because of flooding since November, Bligh said Jan. 28. The Australian state contributes about 19 percent of Australia's economic output, producing 80 percent of the country's coking coal, Treasurer Wayne Swan said last month.
"Now more is being asked of us," Bligh said today.
Xstrata, Rio Tinto
Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal Pty halted operations because of the threat from Yasi, it said on its website today. Xstrata Plc closed its Collinsville coal mine in Queensland, while Rio Tinto Group shut its Hail Creek coal mine in the state.
The Abbot Point coal harbor was due to close at 4 p.m. local time and the Hay Point harbor, which is still open, isn't loading any cargoes, said Mary Steele, a spokeswoman for North Queensland Bulk Ports Corp., which manages the two facilities.
Railway operator QR National Ltd. has suspended two Queensland coal-transport lines. It halted train services on the Newlands line serving Abbot Point and the Goonyella line serving Hay Point, the world's largest port for shipping steelmaking coal, said Mark Hairsine, a spokesman for the company.
Yasi could cause "significant damage" to sugar cane crops in northern Queensland if it crosses the coast as a category four cyclone, Steve Greenwood, chief executive officer of the Brisbane-based producers group Canegrowers, said by phone.
The storm is forecast to strike the coast south of Cairns, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, and may affect a region that accounts for about a third of Australian cane production.
'Wide Area' Threatened
"It's not looking all that positive for those that are going to be impacted, and it looks like it could be a pretty wide area," Greenwood said. "We are talking about a substantial part of the cane-growing areas."
Yasi was 1,120 kilometers east of Cairns at 1 p.m. local time and gradually intensifying, the bureau said.
Townsville advised residents to move away from coastal areas as soon as possible, according to a statement on the Queensland government website. Cairns Mayor Val Schier said residents in low-lying areas were being encouraged to evacuate, the AAP said. "We're telling anyone in the low-lying areas they need to be moving today and find another place to go."
About 300 schools in north and central Queensland will be closed from tomorrow, with those in the far north staying shut for the rest of the week, the Queensland government said in a statement.
Tropical Cyclone Larry in 2006 crossed the north Queensland coast near Innisfail, south of Cairns, and the heart of Australia's banana industry. It caused an estimated A$500 million of damage to infrastructure and crops, damaging about 10,000 homes and disrupting road and rail access for several days, the weather bureau said on its website. It slammed into the Queensland coast as a category four storm, the second- highest category in the five-grade classification system.
To contact the reporter on this story: James Paton in Sydney jpaton4@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Amit Prakash at aprakash1@bloomberg.net.
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