Australia braced for the second powerful cyclone to strike in two weeks as a major storm bore down on the country’s mineral-rich west coast, forcing a halt to some mining and oil drilling operations in the region.
Cyclone Glenda was upgraded to the highest category-five tropical storm overnight but later weakened slightly to a category-four, producing wind gusts near its centre of 280km per hour, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
At 3am GMT, Glenda was 395km northeast of Karratha, a key port and support hub for the Pilbara mining region, heading southwest roughly parallel to the coastline at about 14km per hour, it said.
The bureau said Glenda could still weaken further as it approaches land near Karratha, about 1 200km north of Perth, on Thursday.
But the storm would still be potentially very destructive.
“Residents of the central and west Pilbara coast are warned of the risk of very destructive winds with gusts exceeding 250km per hour during Thursday as this very dangerous cyclone nears the coast,” it said.
The Pilbara is Australia’s main iron-ore producing region and hosts a series of offshore oil and gas projects.
These include the North West Shelf liquefied natural gas project operated by Woodside Petroleum, and iron ore mines operated by BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.
Woodside said it had suspended operations at its 100 000-barrel-per-day Cossack oil field due to the storm while Santos shut its 40 000 bpd Mutineer Exeter offshore oil field.
BHP Billiton said its 10 600 bpd Griffin oil field in the same region had been closed since Saturday and that the company had suspended operations at Port Hedland, north of Karratha, but was continuing mining operations.
Rio Tinto said it had shut down port operations at Cape Lambert and Dampier, both near Karratha.
Emergency workers in the sparsely populated region also urged residents to batten down to avoid a repeat of the devastation caused by a category-five cyclone, Larry, which smashed into the country’s tropical northeast on March 20.
Larry destroyed or damaged hundred of homes and wiped out banana and sugar cane crops, leaving a damage bill expected to top one billion Australian dollars ($707-million).
Thousands of homes are still without power and many schools and businesses remain closed in the worst hit areas of Queensland state nine days after Larry struck. – AFP