Northeastern Australia starts cyclone clean-up

Australia: Australia's northeast coast picked up the pieces on Tuesday after a cyclone with winds topping 290 kph (180 mph) destroyed homes, decimated sugar and banana crops and uprooted trees.

There were no reports of death, but authorities said 30 people had received minor injuries as Cyclone Larry tore through the coast south of the tourist centre of Cairns on Monday.

Another storm, Cyclone Wati, was brewing about 2,000 km east of Cairns and at category two strength, Australia's Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre said.

Wati was on a similar track to Larry but was slower moving and the centre said it was not yet able to predict when the cyclone might strike the Queensland coast. Queensland state Premier Peter Beattie said the recovery from Monday's maximum-category five storm, which left a trail of destruction along 300 km of coast, would be "long and slow" and that it would take time to restore basic services.

"The whole bloody place is blown apart and (the emergency services and local communities are) standing there fixing it up. I just think it says a lot about us as Australians," Beattie told Australian television.

The Bureau of Meteorology said Larry, which brushed the main tourist centre of Cairns, was similar in size to Cyclone Tracy, which killed 71 people and destroyed about 70 percent of the northern city of Darwin in 1974. Innisfail, Tuesday, Reuters