Cyclone Batters Australia’s Queensland Coast; Resorts Evacuated

Tropical Cyclone Hamish battered the coast of Australia’s northern state of Queensland, disrupting coal exports and prompting authorities to evacuate islands popular with tourists.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather warning for the state’s central coast today, saying strong winds are creating dangerous surf and “abnormally high tides.”

Fraser Island, a World Heritage-listed site about 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of the state capital, Brisbane, and Lady Elliot and Heron islands were evacuated yesterday as a precaution, the Department of Emergency Services said.

Dalrymple Bay port, Australia’s second-biggest coal-export site, is seeking to return to normal operations after a 24-hour stoppage caused by the cyclone.

The Category 4 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 175 kilometers (108 miles) per hour, was heading southeast parallel to the coast, threatening coastal and island communities with damaging winds, the weather bureau said. The storm is forecast to weaken and is not expected to make landfall.

The state government put emergency personnel, including search and rescue teams, on standby and sent 6,000 sandbags, flood barrier equipment and tarpaulins to towns along the central coast, Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts said in a statement yesterday.

Shipping Operations

BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, said its shipping operations at Gladstone and Hay Point ports on the Queensland coast have been disrupted by the storm.

Sugar cane production in the state, the nation’s biggest growing region, has been unaffected by the cyclone, according to an industry group.

“We were worried at the weekend but the reality is it didn’t impact on any cane growing areas,” Ian Ballantyne, chief executive officer of Canegrowers, said in a phone interview today. “There was a bit of wind but no substantial damage.”

Queensland accounts for about 95 percent of sugar production in Australia. Much of the sugar cane is grown in coastal regions. The state is also home to coal and base metal mines.

Heavy rain in northern Queensland in recent months caused flooding that may cut sugar output as much as 15 percent in 2009, CSR Ltd., the nation’s biggest sugar refiner, said last month.

SOURCE: bloomberg