Tropical Cyclone Debbie barreled down on northeast Australia Tuesday, dumping torrential rain on the region and leaving more than 50,000 homes without power.
The massive storm was also packing sustained winds of 185 kph (114 mph), with gusts reaching more than 262 kph (163 mph).
“The ferocity of these wind speeds is actually taking roofs of houses, it’s sending fences up in the sky,” Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told CNN.
Officials and meteorologists warn that the cyclone’s slow progress means it’s likely to pose a greater danger to the region’s 250,000 people than speedier storms.
“Rather than coming in and just giving you one sucker punch, it’s just hanging off and just belting us and belting us,” Andrew Wilcox, the mayor of the Whitsunday regional council, told CNN.
Queensland police commissioner Ian Stewart compared it to “a battering ram” in an interview with 7 News.
The storm made landfall as a Category 4 cyclone, the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane. It’s now been downgraded to a Category 3 cyclone, which is comparable to a Category 1 hurricane.
Mayor Wilcox said Cyclone Debbie is the worst storm he’s ever seen in the 48 years he’s lived in the area.
“It’s normally a beautiful place,” he told CNN. “(Now) you wouldn’t step outside because the wind would blow you away.”
But the rain could be more deadly than the wind.
Some 400 or more millimeters (16 inches) could hit the city of Mackay in the coming days, according to CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri. That’s about is about a third of its annual average.
Palaszczuk told Nine News Queensland 211 millimeters (8 inches) of rain fell in an area south of the town of Proserpine in just one hour — a once-in-a-hundred year event.
The town usually averages 208.5 millimeters of rain a month, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.
The rainfall, combined with a dangerous storm tide, could cause major flooding, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.
Read more: CNN
