Bay ex-pats face cyclone fury

By Paul Dykes
A Category 5 cyclone smashed into the North Queensland coast in Australia this morning.
Cyclone Larry - one of the strongest cyclones to affect the North Queensland area in about 30 years - struck land at Innisfail between Cairns and Townsville, packing winds of up to 280kmh.
Upgraded to a Category 5 this morning, the cyclone tore through the Innisfail town of about 25,000. Residents there reported the sounds of roofs being ripped off buildings.
Innisfail police are unable to leave their station to answer desperate calls for help.
They have been inundated with calls from residents whose homes are "literally crumbling around them".
"We have roofs flying off in Fly Fish Point, Silkwood and in the city centre," a Innisfail police spokeswoman said.
"And we have trees across roads."
She said most of the destruction was occurring in the regions just north-east of the town. Callers were very scared.
"Homes are literally crumbling around them," she told AAP.
Larry is stronger than Cyclone Tracy, which wiped out Darwin on Christmas Day 1974. That was a category four storm. Katrina, which swept away New Orleans last year, fluctuated between categories three and five.
The cyclone's full horror was brought home to former Mount Maunganui resident Tanya Robinson, who was today trapped in her home.
The 32-year-old hairdresser has done all she could to prepare but was left with the reality that there was nowhere to go to escape Larry.
"We received our first warning that we are in the target zone on Saturday and we went to the supermarket to stock up," she told the Bay of Plenty Times from Townsville this morning.
"It was scary, eerie. The supermarket was packed and soon sold out. People were waiting for hours for fresh supplies.
"Townsville has run out of gas bottles and people are queuing around the block for petrol - that's when you take it seriously."
Miss Robinson, who lived at Mount Maunganui for 14 years before going to Townsville on a working holiday just two months ago, is hunkered down with her friend Blaise Webster from Whakatane.
She said all commercial airline flights were cancelled from Sunday, and 300 homes on the Townsville coastline were evacuated ahead of an expected 4m surge in the tide this morning.
"It's windy outside this morning, but I can still stand ... "
To make matters worse for Miss Robinson, news has just come out about a second cyclone, named Wati, forming behind Larry.
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology said Wati was intensifying.
Phil Cammish, recently arrived in Tauranga from Cairns as the new CEO of the Bay of Plenty Health Board, said Cairns Hospital was well prepared and well rehearsed for a cyclone disaster.
The Seventh Day Adventist minister at Innisfail, Dana Howard, said he was taking shelter with a few locals at the church's community centre, but the building was barely holding up against the gales.
"All our windows have blown out on one side, the roller doors have blown out ... next door's house has gone, it's pretty bad," he said.
"The trees are all just totally stripped or gone over.
"It's amazing."
Asked what he would do over the next few hours, Mr Howard said: "Pray ...
``I'm serious."