CYCLONE HITS PORT DOUGLAS, MORE FLOODS EXPECTED
Date: 15-Feb-99
Country: AUSTRALIA
Author: Diana Taylor
"The eye of Cyclone Rona passed over Port Douglas," said Jim Davidson at Brisbane's cyclone warning centre.
Emergency officials in the area urged people to take shelter and braced for major floods as Rona dumped heavy rain on the area.
Queensland is just recovering from floods that have claimed five lives near the state's southern coast since Tuesday.
Resident Andre Leu told Australian radio of the calm in the eye of the cyclone. "For the last 20 minutes we've had absolutely no wind or
rain, it's just dead still," said Leu, who lives just north of the resort town.
"I've got trees down around the place, I've got our driveway washed out and the creek's over our causeway," Leu said.
The radio said much of the far north of Queensland was without power after winds tore down cables and trees as Rona struck land.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Rona lost power as it crossed the coastline and was swiftly downgraded to category two, weaker than the category four Cyclone Tracy
that killed more than 60 people in Darwin in 1974.
A receptionist at a luxury hotel complex in Port Douglas said guests sheltered in a corridor in the centre of the building.
The radio said rescue authorities were managing to stay in contact with a clipper with 32 passengers on board caught out at sea just off
Port Douglas.
Torrential rains since the weekend in southern Queensland have sent raging waters down creeks and swelled the Mary River to a peak
of nearly 22 metres (72 feet) at the town of Gympie on Wednesday, the highest level in a century.
One woman found help 48 hours after floodwaters swept her camper van several kilometres down a creek north of Brisbane.
Police said she escaped after cutting a hole with a knife in the van's rooftop window, then grabbed at a succession of trees to try to pull
herself out the water, only to be swept away.
After 10 hours in the water, she walked all day on Tuesday, got trapped by another creek, slept in foliage until the water subsided and
finally walked into a camping ground on Wednesday.
Police later found the body of her companion, who had managed to scramble out of the van when the floodwaters first hit.
Four other people, including an eight-year-old boy, have drowned in the Queensland floods since Tuesday.
