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WEATHER
Tropical cyclones

Cyclone Debbie: Deadly storm strikes Australia as thousands flee

Doyle Rice
USA TODAY
Strong winds and rain lash Airlie Beach, Australia, March 28, 2017. Reports state that Cyclone Debbie is expected to hit Queensland's far north coast as a category 4 cyclone March 28, 2017.

Tropical Cyclone Debbie slammed into northeastern Australia midday Tuesday with wind gusts as high as 161 mph, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said.

At least one death has been blamed on the storm. As many as 25,000 residents evacuated low-lying areas as the storm approached, the National Post newspaper said.

Debbie made landfall near Airlie Beach, Queensland, a tourist resort and gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. The storm was the equivalent of a Category 4 when it pushed ashore, the Weather Channel said.

"It sounds like you got a jumbo jet sitting on the roof of your house," John Collins of Proserpine, Australia, told the Associated Press. "It really is so loud. It's incredible."

Hundreds of schools closed Tuesday and more than 20,000 households were without power by mid-afternoon, the AP said.

Debbie continued to weaken as it moved inland, the meteorology bureau said in an online forecast. The storm's strength decreased to a category 2 cyclone and is expected to further weaken Tuesday night.

The full devastation brought on by the cyclone will not be known until Wednesday morning, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Eastern Australia is 14 hours ahead of the USA's Eastern Time Zone.

The population of Queensland, a state in northeastern Australia, is about 4.6 million. The capital is Brisbane, Australia's third-largest city. The storm hit about 560 miles northwest of Brisbane.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Queensland has been hit by nine tropical cyclones of Category 3 or greater strength on the Saffir-Simpson Scale since 1989. Four of those storms have hit since 2011, the Weather Underground said.

Debbie is the first tropical cyclone of hurricane strength to impact northeast Australia (Queensland) since Tropical Cyclone Marcia in February 2015, the Weather Channel reported.

In the Indian Ocean and near Australia, these storms are called tropical cyclones, which is the same type of storm as a hurricane or typhoon in other parts of the world. As is the case with all storms in the Southern Hemisphere, Debbie is spinning clockwise, unlike the counterclockwise spin of storms in the Northern Hemisphere.

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