'Extremely dangerous' cyclone sweeps into northwest Australia

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December 8, 2000
Web posted at: 11:16 PM HKT (1516 GMT)

PERTH, Australia (Reuters) -- A severe tropical cyclone, packing winds of up to 280 km (175 miles) an hour, crossed Australia's northwest coast on Friday near a remote and evacuated aboriginal settlement.

The category five cyclone -- the most dangerous on a five point scale -- moved on to land 25 km (16 miles) west southwest of Bidyadanga at 8 p.m. Perth time (1200 GMT), Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said.

"Conditions in the Bidyadanga area will be extremely dangerous this evening and overnight," said the bureau in its tropical cyclone warning.

Emergency officials said only two people had opted to stay at Bidyadanga after about 250 others had been evacuated in buses on Friday.

RESOURCES Updated weather forecast for Perth, Australia

More than 500 other members of the Aboriginal community, including pregnant women and sick and elderly people, were evacuated on Thursday as Sam built up off the coast.

Bidyadanga is 180 km south of the fishing and tourist resort of Broome, which itself is 1,700 km (1,050 miles) north of the Western Australia capital of Perth.

There was also an exodus from other towns near Bidyadanga.

Colin Lewis, manager of the Eighty Miles Beach caravan park east of Bidyadanga, said campers had been evacuated on Thursday, leaving just his family at the park.

"We do have like a bomb shelter out the back, a converted shipping container that's concreted down," he said on Friday afternoon.

"If the wind gets up over 200 km (125 miles) an hour and things start flying to pieces, we'll slip in there just to be on the safe side."

But Lewis said he and his wife had no plans to evacuate.

"Everything we have is here. We're 250 km (155 miles) from the closest town and chances are it will pass us by and hit that town if we head there."

Sam is the first of a string of tropical depressions expected to menace Australia's northwest this southern hemisphere summer.

A spokeswoman for Western Australia's emergency services said it was too soon to know how severe the damage from the first cyclone of the season would be.

"After first light tomorrow we will send in an assessment team," she said.

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