TULLY (Australia) - ONE of the most powerful storms ever recorded in Australia pulled houses apart and snapped power poles as it ripped across already flood-sodden Queensland state on Thursday, leaving authorities relieved that no one was killed.
Officials had issued days of increasingly dire warnings, and said lives were spared because people followed instructions to flee to evacuation centres or bunker themselves at home in dozens of cities and towns in Cyclone Yasi's path on the northeast coast. Thousands of people were left homeless.
The storm was as powerful as forecasters predicted - ferocious winds up to 170 mph (280 kph) at the core, flood-inducing rain and tidal surges that sent waves crashing ashore two blocks into seaside towns.
Several small towns directly under Yasi's eye were devastated, hundreds of millions of dollars of banana and sugarcane crops smashed and power to more than 180,000 homes severed.
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