A girl waits in line to enter an emergency cyclone shelter in a shopping mall in the northern Australian city of Cairns. Catagory five Cyclone Yasi, expected to be the most powerful storm to cross Australia's heavily populated east coast in generations, is expected to make landfall. Thousands of residents fled their homes and crammed into shelters in northeastern Australia as the cyclone with a 650km wide front barrelled towards the coastline. Photo: Reuters
A girl waits in line to enter an emergency cyclone shelter in a shopping mall in the northern Australian city of Cairns. Catagory five Cyclone Yasi, expected to be the most powerful storm to cross Australia's heavily populated east coast in generations, is expected to make landfall. Thousands of residents fled their homes and crammed into shelters in northeastern Australia as the cyclone with a 650km wide front barrelled towards the coastline. Photo: Reuters
People pack a shopping mall used as a evacuation shelter in Cairns, Australia, as a monster cyclone approaches the northeast coast with furious winds, rains and surging seas on a scale unseen in generations. Thousands of residents fled their homes and crammed into shelters in northeastern Australia as the cyclone with a 650km wide front barrelled towards the coastline. Photo: AP
A hand painted board protects the front window of a cafe in the northern Australian city of Cairns. Category five Cyclone Yasi, expected to be the most powerful storm to cross Australia's heavily populated east coast in generations, is expected to make landfall. Thousands of residents fled their homes and crammed into shelters in northeastern Australia as the cyclone with a 650km wide front barrelled toward the coastline. Photo: Reuters
People pack a shopping mall used as a evacuation shelter in Cairns, Australia, as a monster cyclone approaches the northeast coast with furious winds, rains and surging seas on a scale unseen in generations. Thousands of residents fled their homes and crammed into shelters in northeastern Australia as the cyclone with a 650km wide front barrelled towards the coastline. Photo: AP
A view of an almost empty main street in the northern Australian city of Cairns as Cyclone Yasi approaches. Category five Cyclone Yasi, expected to be the most powerful storm to cross Australia's heavily populated east coast in generations, is expected to make landfall. Thousands of residents fled their homes and crammed into shelters in northeastern Australia as the cyclone with a 650km wide front barrelled towards the coastline. Photo: Reuters
A weather satellite image obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Cyclone Yasi approaching the coast of Australia. Catagory five Cyclone Yasi, expected to be the most powerful storm to cross Australia's heavily populated east coast in generations, is expected to make landfall. Thousands of residents fled their homes and crammed into shelters in northeastern Australia as the cyclone with a 650km wide front barrelled towards the coastline. Photo: Reuters
People pack a shopping mall used as a evacuation shelter in Cairns, Australia, as a monster cyclone approaches the northeast coast with furious winds, rains and surging seas on a scale unseen in generations. Thousands of residents fled their homes and crammed into shelters in northeastern Australia as the cyclone with a 650km wide front barrelled towards the coastline. Photo: AP
Residents and tourists queue to enter an emergency cyclone shelter at a shopping mall in the northern Australian city of Cairns. Catagory five Cyclone Yasi, expected to be the most powerful storm to cross Australia's heavily populated east coast in generations, is expected to make landfall. Thousands of residents fled their homes and crammed into shelters in northeastern Australia as the cyclone with a 650km wide front barrelled towards the coastline. Photo: Reuters
Australia's robust economy will overcome the impact of catastrophic floods by the second half of the year as coal exports from deluged Queensland state recover, the central bank said. Photo: Reuters
A police officer, right, tells people on the street that there is a mandatory evacuation and they must move to a safer area in Cairns, as a monster storm bears down on northeastern Australia. Thousands of residents fled their homes and crammed into shelters in northeastern Australia as the cyclone with a 650km wide front barrelled towards the coastline. Photo: AP
Local resident Selwyn Hughes sits with his daughter Roseanne outside an emergency cyclone shelter after it was declared full and the gate locked in the northern Australian city of Cairns. Catagory five Cyclone Yasi, expected to be the most powerful storm to cross Australia's heavily populated east coast in generations, is expected to make landfall. Thousands of residents fled their homes and crammed into shelters in northeastern Australia as the cyclone with a 650km wide front barrelled towards the coastline. Photo: Reuters
A man sleeps in an emergency cyclone shelter at a shopping mall in the northern Australian city of Cairns. Catagory five Cyclone Yasi, expected to be the most powerful storm to cross Australia's heavily populated east coast in generations, is expected to make landfall. Thousands of residents fled their homes and crammed into shelters in northeastern Australia as the cyclone with a 650km wide front barrelled towards the coastline. Photo: Reuters
A local resident feeds his baby outside an emergency cyclone shelter after it was declared full and the gate locked in the northern Australian city of Cairns. Category five Cyclone Yasi, expected to be the most powerful storm to cross Australia's heavily populated east coast in generations, is expected to make landfall. thousands of residents fled their homes and crammed into shelters in northeastern Australia as the cyclone with a 650km wide front barrelled towards the coastline. Photo: Reuters
A satellite image obtained from the US Naval Research Laboratory shows Cyclone Yasi approaching the coast of Queensland, Australia. Catagory five Cyclone Yasi, expected to be the most powerful storm to cross Australia's heavily populated east coast in generations, is expected to make landfall. Thousands of residents fled their homes and crammed into shelters in northeastern Australia as the cyclone with a 650km wide front barrelled towards the coastline. Photo: US Naval Research Laboratory
Tropical Cyclone Yasi continues on its path towards Queensland, in this image captured by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on Nasa's Terra satellite. Catagory five Cyclone Yasi, expected to be the most powerful storm to cross Australia's heavily populated east coast in generations, is expected to make landfall. Thousands of residents fled their homes and crammed into shelters in northeastern Australia as the cyclone with a 650km wide front barrelled towards the coastline. Photo: Reuters
Local residents and tourists wait outside an emergency cyclone shelter after it was declared full and the gate locked in the northern Australian city of Cairns. Category five Cyclone Yasi, expected to be the most powerful storm to cross Australia's heavily populated east coast in generations, is expected to make landfall. Thousands of residents fled their homes and crammed into shelters in northeastern Australia as the cyclone with a 650km wide front barrelled towards the coastline. Photo: Reuters
A local resident cooks himself a barbeque on the waterfront as he waits for the arrival of Cyclone Yasi in the northern Australian city of Cairns. Category five Cyclone Yasi, expected to be the most powerful storm to cross Australia's heavily populated east coast in generations, is expected to make landfall late on Wednesday night. Thousands of residents fled their homes and crammed into shelters in northeastern Australia as the cyclone with a 650km wide front barrelled toward the coastline. Photo: Reuters
A woman walks along he waterfront in Cairns, Australia, as a monster cyclone approaches the northeast coast with furious winds, rains and surging seas on a scale unseen in generations. Thousands of residents fled their homes and crammed into shelters in northeastern Australia as the cyclone with a 650km wide front barrelled towards the coastline. Photo: AP
A satellite image obtained from the US Naval Research Laboratory shows Cyclone Yasi approaching the coast of Australia. Catagory five Cyclone Yasi, expected to be the most powerful storm to cross Australia's heavily populated east coast in generations, is expected to make landfall. Thousands of residents fled their homes and crammed into shelters in northeastern Australia as the cyclone with a 650km wide front barrelled towards the coastline. Photo: US Naval Research Laboratory
Published Feb 2, 2011
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One of the most powerful cyclones on record began pounding Australia's northeast coast, threatening popular tourist cities and with people scrambling to find refuge after police turned them away from overcrowded shelters. Cyclone Yasi, packing winds of up to 300km an hour near its core, started to come ashore along hundreds of km of coastline on Wednesday night, giving a foretaste of a storm centre described by authorities as "terrifying".
Yasi is a maximum-strength category five storm, on a par with Hurricane Katrina which wrecked New Orleans in 2005.
