Perilous
Times and Climate Change
Powerful cyclone slams Western Australia
by Staff Writers
Sydney (AFP) Feb 22, 2011
A tropical cyclone lashing West Australia's northwest mining coast
Tuesday damaged dozens of homes and forced the closure of offshore
oil rigs and ports handling iron-ore exports, officials said.
Tropical Cyclone Carlos, measuring category two on a five-point
scale, howled along Western Australia's Pilbara coast, shutting
Port Hedland -- the nation's biggest iron-ore terminal -- and
halting offshore oil drilling.
The companies BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto both have major iron-ore
projects in the Pilbara region, and they said the wild weather had
also forced the closure of rail and roads.
Woodside Petroleum, Australia's second-largest energy firm, froze
production at its Enfield and Cossack Pioneer platforms, while
Apache also halted work at its Stag and Van Gogh fields.
Mining towns including Karratha and Dampier were on red alert as
Carlos battered the coast, bringing heavy rains and winds gusting
in excess of 140 kilometres (87 miles) per hour, emergency
officials said.
"There is a threat to lives and homes. You are in danger and need
to act immediately," the Fire and Emergency Services Authority
(FESA) warned residents, advising them to shelter in the safest
part of their house.
Now in its sixth day, Carlos triggered a mini-tornado in Karratha
overnight, ripping up roofs, felling power lines and damaging more
than 40 homes.
"There's still some significant bits of debris still on the
ground, mainly sections of the roof and parts of large
air-conditioning units and that sort of stuff," said FESA
spokesman Allen Gale.
"They are going to have to remain there until we can get a machine
in to move it after the red alert has been lifted."
At least 30 homes were flooded when Carlos hit the remote northern
city of Darwin last week before moving offshore and gathering
power, just two weeks after top-level Cyclone Yasi smashed into
the northeast tourist coast.
Yasi followed record flooding in northern Queensland state which
inundated tens of thousands of homes and killed 35 people.
Australia's wild weather has been linked to an especially strong
La Nina climate pattern, which traditionally brings cyclones and
floods to the vast country.