Australia now faces 160mph battering from Cyclone Yasi

Australia's flood-stricken state of Queensland has closed major coal ports, evacuated tourists from vulnerable resorts and warned of heavy rain ahead of a massive cyclone due to slam into its coast this week.

Forecasters said Cyclone Yasi could be generating gales of more than 160mph when it hits the coast on Wednesday or Thursday, which would put it on a par with Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005.

"This is a very serious threat," Queensland premier Anna Bligh told reporters yesterday. "It may be one of the largest and most significant cyclones we've ever had to deal with."

The storm could dump up to 3ft of rain on some communities already saturated from months of flooding, Ms Bligh said.

Hamilton Island, a popular tourist destination off Queensland, began evacuating some visitors yesterday, and other islands nearby were considering doing the same, Ms Bligh said. Some nursing homes along the coast were also evacuating residents and officials urged people living in low-lying areas to consider leaving their homes until the storm has passed.

Deputy Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said residents should be prepared with flashlights, food and water. "We ask people to take whatever action is necessary to protect themselves and their loved ones," he said.

"This is a very, very serious threat to the safety of our coastline and the safety of our community."

Queensland, which accounts for about a fifth of Australia's economy and 90 per cent of its exports of steelmaking coal, has borne the brunt of a cruel summer, with floods having swept across the eastern seaboard in the past month, killing at least 35 people.

Queensland is also home to Australia's sugar industry, which was also hurt by the floods and now risks being battered by the cyclone.

The floods swamped about 30,000 homes, destroyed roads and rail lines and crippled Queensland's coal industry, with up to 15 million tonnes of exports estimated to have been delayed into the second half of this year.

Queensland's coal mines are mostly well inland and unlikely to be smashed by Cyclone Yasi, but they could be drenched again by heavy rain. The mines are still struggling to pump water out of their pits.

Cyclone Yasi is expected to classified "category 4" by the time it reaches the coast.That is the second-highest category and would be around the same strength as Hurricane Katrina and the strongest to hit Australia since early 2006.

The cyclone, currently in the south-west Pacific, is expected to make landfall near the north-eastern military town of Townsville with wind gusts of 110mph to 160mph, but with damaging winds along more than 600 miles of coastline.

It is expected to largely avoid areas to the south - including Brisbane - that have suffered the worst of the recent flooding. Still, Ms Bligh said the storm's path could change and residents up and down the coast needed to be prepared.

"We couldn't rule out further flooding in areas that have already experienced significant flooding," she said.