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AUSTRALIA-WEATHER-CYCLONE
Twin cyclones batter Australia
SYDNEY, March 23, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A “very destructive” category 4 cyclone
slammed into Australia’s remote northern coast on Saturday, while a second,
equally powerful storm bore down on the country’s west.
Cyclone Trevor, pushing a huge storm tide and packing winds of up to 250
kilometres per hour (150 mph), made landfall on the sparsely populated
Northern Territory coast near the Gulf of Carpentaria town of Port McArthur,
national broadcaster ABC reported.
The army and police had already evacuated most residents from communities
in Trevor’s path, though a handful of locals remained behind, police told the
ABC.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said Trevor was driving a “very dangerous
storm tide” along coastal regions and that heavy rainfall was expected to
cause flooding across wide areas of the Northern Territory and neighbouring
Queensland. Meanwhile another category 4 cyclone, Veronica, was bearing down
on the more heavily populated mining region of Pilbara in Western Australia
state, where it was expected to make landfall late Saturday or Sunday.
Jonathan Howe of the BOM said Veronica was expected to slow down as it
approached the coast near the mining centre of Port Hedland, carrying up to a
metre of rain for some areas and pushing a storm surge than could reach four
metres (nine feet).
“We could see widespread inundation,” of the region, he said.
BSS/AFP/SSS/0829 hrs