Cyclone Yasi wreaks havoc but no deaths

Northeast Australia bore the brunt of Mother Nature at its most spectacular, as one of the most powerful cyclones on record hit the state of Queensland. The winds tore off roofs, toppled power lines and caused widespread flooding.

But Cyclone Yasi, which packed a punch of winds of up to 300 kilometres per hour, did much less damage than had been feared and no deaths have been reported.

While Yasi was the size of Italy, it appeared to miss major towns in the sparsely populated state although it did cause extensive damage to the local sugar cane crop.

Yasi had been rated a maximum strength category five storm, drawing comparisons with Hurricane Katrina which wrecked New Orleans in 2005.

As a precaution, thousands of residents were evacuated and housed in temporary shelters to ride out the storm.

As Yasi moves inland, it has been downgraded to a category two storm but its core remains very destructive.

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