Satellite image of Cyclone John as it hits the Australian Coast, taken 6:38 a.m. EST

December 15, 1999
Web posted at: 9:33 a.m. EST (1433 GMT)

PERTH, Australia (Reuters) -- Hundreds of people were evacuated from small coastal towns in northwest Australia on Tuesday as a cyclone, billed as possibly the strongest to threaten the country, approached.

"We are looking at potentially the strongest cyclone ever to cross the Australian coast," Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Malcolm Young told Reuters in Perth after the bureau upgraded Cyclone John to category five.

Category five is the highest level on the system of measuring cyclones with destructive wind speeds up to 300 kilometers (188 miles) an hour.

"Category five means a huge risk to local communities and infrastructure," Young said. "The whole Pilbara coast is under threat tonight."

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But the coast is very thinly populated. About 600 people have been evacuated from three small towns, and other residents have been told to take refuge in cyclone centres or try to reach higher ground.

At 0800 GMT, the storm was 195 km (122 miles) northwest of Port Hedland and 200 km (125 miles) north-northeast of the small town of Karratha and moving south-southwest at 15 kph.

It was expected to cross land near Karratha around dawn. Karratha has a population of about 6,000. Residents have been warned to be expect dangerous tides and flooding as well as the destructive winds.

The storm has already forced offshore oil fields and iron ore ports in the state's remote mineral-rich Pilbara region to close.

Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre duty officer Bryan Boase said the storm could cause destruction similar to last year's Cyclone Vance, one of the most powerful cyclones to hit the Australian coast.

Vance lashed the cyclone-prone remote region of Western Australia, destroying about a third of the buildings in the small fishing town of Exmouth.

The cyclone has brought a halt to oil production totalling around 200,000 barrels per day from the Cossack, Griffin, Thevenard Island, Barrow Island and Stag oil fields.

Iron ore ports were also affected.

North Ltd's Robe River iron ore unit said it had evacuated its Cape Lambert port, while a spokesman for Rio Tinto's iron ore unit, Hamersley Iron, said its port at Dampier had been shut.

"The port has been closed and we have gone to tie down. The next step is to put people on standby and then finally we will go to full shut down," the Rio spokesman said.

A Broken Hill Pty Co Ltd iron ore spokesman said the company shut its shipping operations and hot briquette iron plant in Port Hedland and most of its employees had gone home.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

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