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  Channel NewsAsia 21 Mar 06
Cyclone likely killed part of Great Barrier Reef
AFP

Today Online 21 Mar 06
Roofs torn away, Barrier Reef bleeds
Super cyclone more powerful than Hurricane Katrina tears apart area south of Cairns

BRISBANE: A stunned Australia was counting the cost after a super cyclone, packing winds faster than Formula One cars, tore through its tourist coastline in the north-east, flattened homes and ripped trees apart.

It was also feared that many parts of the Great Barrier Reef, treasured as the world's largest living organism, were killed by Cyclone Larry.

The Category 5 storm, more powerful than Hurricane Katrina which devastated New Orleans last August, hit land near Innisfail, south of Cairns, yesterday and proceeded to tear the area apart.

"We have roofs flying off ... in the city centre," said an Innisfail police spokeswoman. Immediately after the storm, the police had hundreds of calls for help but were unable to leave the station. "Peoples homes are literally crumbling around them," the spokeswoman said. About a third of the buildings in the town with a population of 8,000 had been damaged. "Some have all their roofs gone, some have walls gone and trees are in all sorts of directions. I can't even understand how they got like that," said an emergency official.

Most people managed to evacuate before the storm stuck. Others were trying to ride it out. Innisfail resident Des Hensler, who was sheltering alone in a church with water up to his ankles, said the tried to describe what he was witnessing. "There's a grey sheet of water just taking everything in its path. And believe me, it's taking just everything ... it is totally scary."

But some of the worst damage was expected to have taken place beneath the waves that were frothing in the wake of 290km an hour winds. The Great Barrier Reef, the centrepiece of Australia's multi-billion dollar tourism industry, bore the brunt of the battering.

"You are looking at the death of almost all corals on parts of the reef that were affected by the winds and the waves," said Mr David Wachenseld, director for science at the Great barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

"All hard corals, sponges and sea fans live stuck to the sea floor like a tree is rooted in one place, so they would have had to take the brunt of it," he said. "Most of the bigger animals, you'd expect, would have swum away."

A much smaller storm last year, he said, damaged coral over a 160-km wide path in a reef that is 2,000-km long. Recovery there could take 10 to 20 years, he said. The fallout from Cyclone Larry could be much worse.

On land, farmers were already tallying their losses. The area hit by the cyclone is home to 90 per cent of Australia's banana industry and produces 25 per cent of its sugarcane crop. Johnstone Shire Council deputy mayor said the plantations had been ruined.

"The crops are all gone, bananas are all flattened, cane's flattened. It'll kill us for 12 to 18 months," Mr Pervan said. "It'll kill us completely." Queenstown MP Batter Katter added that 4,000 jobs could be affected in the banana industry alone.

Meanwhile, most were worried merely about surviving the current nightmare. Though no deaths had been reported, there were fears that another cyclone was gathering steam and could strike the same area in the coming days. Already were 120,000 people were making do without electricity. "My walls are shaking furiously right now, Ravenshoe town mayor Anne Portess said over her mobile phone. "There's no power and the phone's off ... I'm not happy."

Prime Minister John Howard said that Blackhawk choppers were on stand-by and would help in the disaster recovery effort.

Channel NewsAsia 21 Mar 06
Cyclone likely killed part of Great Barrier Reef
AFP

SYDNEY : Parts of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, treasured as the world's largest living organism, were probably killed by Cyclone Larry on, an expert said.

The storm caused widespread destruction when it hit Australia's northeastern coast and the damage would extend below the waves, said David Wachenseld, director for science at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

In the area covered by the centre of the storm, "you're looking at the death of almost all corals on parts of the reef that were affected by the wind and the waves," he told AFP "All hard corals and things like sponges, soft corals, sea fans - all this kind of thing - live stuck to the sea floor just like a tree is rooted in one place, so they just have to sit there and take the brunt of it. "Most of the bigger animals you'd expect would have swum away and wouldn't really have been affected," Wachenseld said.

While there had not been time to physically check the damage, Wachenseld said he based his assessment on destruction caused by Cyclone Ingrid last year. That storm caused little damage when it came ashore in a very sparsely populated part of the coast, but damaged coral over a 160-kilometre wide path, with destruction highest in the centre.

"To put that in perspective, the reef is more than 2,000 kilometres long," Wachenseld said. In areas of minor damage "you won't notice a difference in a couple of years, but in the middle where most and even all corals are killed, you're probably looking at 10 to 20 years for a recovery.

"The important thing is that the Great Barrier Reef is one of the healthiest coral reefs in the world. "Humans can't go and fix the damage caused by a cyclone but humans can make the difference between whether or not a coral reef system is healthy enough to fix itself - and the Great Barrier Reef many times before has demonstrated to us that it is healthy enough to do that."

The Great Barrier Reef is the world's biggest coral system, stretching over more than 345,000 square kilometres off Queensland's coast. The marine park has been listed by the United Nations as a World Heritage site. It is a centrepiece of Australia's multi-billion dollar annual tourism industry. - AFP/de
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