Australia braced as 186mph storm hits Queensland

Cyclone Yasi is said to be the most powerful storm to hit the area in almost a century, and comes hard on the heels of extensive flooding in Queensland.

The eye of the storm roared ashore at the resort town of Mission Beach, battering the coast, known to tourists as the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, with heavy rain and winds gusting to 186mph.

Yasi compounded the suffering for Queensland, waterlogged by months of flooding that killed 35 people and inundated hundreds of communities. It struck an area north of the flood zone, but Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said it would bring drenching rains that could cause floods in other parts of the state.

Witnesses reported roofs being torn off, buildings shaking and trees flattened by the gusting winds. Officials said the storm surge would flood some homes to roof level.

"This is a cyclone of savagery and intensity," prime minister Julia Gillard said in a televised news conference as the storm moved toward the coast. "People are facing some really dreadful hours in front of them."

More than 10,000 people fled to 20 evacuation centres in a danger zone stretching 190 mile, amid strong warnings in the past two days. Many others moved in with family or friends in safer locations. Still, authorities were preparing for devastation, and probable fatalities.

The storm front was about 300 miles across, with the worst of the winds expected to lash the coast for up to four hours, although blustery conditions and heavy rain could last a day.

"It's such a big storm - it's a monster, killer storm," Queensland premier Anna Bligh said, adding that the only previous cyclone measured in the state at such strength was in 1918. "This impact is likely to be more life threatening than any experienced during recent generations."

The damage would not be known until first light today, officials said.

In the city of Cairns, about 75 miles north of Mission Beach, guests at a waterfront hotel took cover in the central ballroom as lights flickered. Staff members handed out flashlights and pinned curtains shut over windows in danger of shattering.Tourist Barbara Maskei, 49, from Germany, lay on the ballroom floor under a sheet reading a book, as her 20-year-old daughter, Annette, and husband, Peter, dozed beside her. For her, there would be no sleep."I like to keep my eyes open," she said as the wind roared outside.

In Innisfail, a town about 55 miles south of Cairns sitting nearly in the direct path of the storm, mayor Bill Shannon said he saw the roof torn off a building near the town hall building where about 500 people were sheltering.

"We're just hoping and praying we can all get through the night," Mr Shannon said.

In nearby Tully, resident Ross Sorbello described feeling his house shake from the wind.

"The wind and rain outside are howling; it's a horrible sound," he said. Storm surges of at least 6ft 6ins were likely and would almost certainly flood some coastal communities, forecasters said, adding that up to 28 inches of rain could fall within hours in some areas. At highest risk was an area about 150 miles long between Cairns and the sugar cane-growing town of Ingham. The storm was forecast to continue inland at cyclone strength for two days and gradually weaken.

It was unclear what the damage to the Great Barrier Reef would be.

State disaster co-ordinator Ian Stewart said just one emergency call had been received - from six people in their 60s who feared their apartment in Port Hinchinbrook would be swamped. They were told to wait it out because it was too dangerous for emergency workers to try to reach them.

Winds knocked out power to about 90,000 homes last night.

Australia's huge, sparsely populated tropical north is battered annually by about six cyclones - called typhoons across Asia and hurricanes in the Western hemisphere.

Building laws have been strengthened since Cyclone Tracy devastated the city of Darwin in 1974, killing 71 in one of Australia's worst recorded natural disaster.