CAIRNS, Australia A cyclone ripped roofs off buildings across Australia's northeastern coast Monday, packing winds up to 290 kilometers an hour and wreaking havoc in coastal towns. It left an unknown number of people homeless but caused only a handful of injuries.
 
As emergency teams spread out across the region to assess damage from the worst storm to hit Australia in decades, they were met by scenes of devastation.
 
In Innisfail, a farming town of 8,500 that was hardest hit, the main street was littered with the mangled remains of iron roofs topped with corrugated tin and shredded fronds from palm trees.
 
"It looks like an atomic bomb hit the place," Mayor Neil Clarke told Australian television. "It is severe damage."
 
Clarke told Australian Broadcasting that survivors - possibly numbering in the thousands - would be housed in tents at the town's airstrip.
 
Cyclone Larry laid waste to entire banana and sugar cane plantations - tearing the economic heart out of some towns. Officials estimated the damage at hundreds of millions of dollars.
 
Hundreds of tourists and thousands of residents hunkered down inside resort hotels and homes as the cyclone smashed into the coast about 100 kilometers, or 60 miles, south of Cairns, north Queensland.
 
There were no serious injuries among about a dozen people reported hurt, reflecting the readiness of residents in the storm-prone region, local officials said.
 
"The damage to dwellings is very extensive," Prime Minister John Howard told the Nine Network from Melbourne. "Thank heavens it does not appear as though there have been any very serious injuries."
 
Howard said he would visit the stricken region in coming days and added that his government would send money to homeless families.
 
The cyclone damaged more than half the buildings in Innisfail, said Queensland's state leader, Peter Beattie.
 
"Some have been flattened, roofs have been taken off," Beattie told Macquarie Radio. "The property damage has been immense."
 
Power lines were downed and it will take days to replace them, he added. "We haven't had a cyclone like this for decades, if we've ever had one like it before." More than 50,000 people were expected to be without power for days.
 
Aerial television images from Innisfail showed homes torn apart and debris from shredded buildings littering streets and gardens. A banana plantation was totally flattened.
 
Innisfail attracts hundreds of foreigners each year who take seasonal work in the area's plantations.
 
Australia's military said it would send helicopters to the region to conduct low-level damage assessment flights and transport a medical team.
 
About a dozen people were treated at regional hospitals for minor cuts and bruises, a spokesman for Queensland's health department, Jim Guthrie, said.
 
"This is far north Queensland and most people live with cyclones year in, year out," he said. "They do take precautions. We've come out of it extremely well."
 
Cairns is a popular jumping-off point for the Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral system and a mecca for tourists and divers.
 
The cyclone was rated as a category 5 - the strongest - but was downgraded by the Bureau of Meteorology Monday to category 2 after crossing the coast.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/20/news/storm.php