Northeast Australia has escaped the fury of tropical cyclone Ita, as it weakened into a tropical low soon after landfall. Ita was expected to be the most powerful cyclones in ‘living memory’ to have ever hit Australia. The Category 5 cyclone hit the town of Cooktown at around 9 p.m. Australian time on Friday 11th April. However, the cat 5 storm soon weakened into cat 3 and further downgraded into a low pressure area. And as it swept off the coast, gales and torrential rain trailed along. Cyclone Ita rolled out into the Coral Sea on Monday, leaving thousands of homes without power and floods down Australia's Barrier Reef coast. The Bureau of Meteorology of Australia lifted the last cyclone warning south of Mackay and north of Rockhampton Monday morning as Ita was expected to weaken further. Roofs were ripped off and several trees were uprooted during the night. Till now rain had damaged up to 20 homes and another 30 had been flooded and destroyed in Port Douglas. Agriculture too was affected as banana plantations in Cooktown were flattened by torrential rain and gusty winds. However, no loss to life has been reported thanks to evacuation. "I am greatly relieved that this time we have no reports of either death or injury”, spoke Queensland premier Campbell Newman, as he urged people to stay indoors until the cyclone was properly over. Latest images show Tropical Cyclone Ita is expected to maintain a southeast track as it moves offshore away from the coast, sparing the people of Queensland. Cyclones are not uncommon in Australia. According to the Meteorology Bureau, the cyclone season typically runs from November through April, with the most destructive storms occurring in March and April. While last two seasons in Australia saw no cat 5 storms, this season saw three (Bruce, Gillian and Ita) category 5 storms out of the nine named storms. While Bruce and Gillian peaked outside the coast, Ita struck the basin. Fletcher, another storm which hit Queensland in February was the fifth wettest storm in history of Australia, which dumped over 1250 mm of rain. Cyclone Yasi (Feb 2011), Cyclone Goerge (March 2007), Cyclone of Ingrid (March 2005) and Cyclone Joan (December 1975) were other severe storms to have hit Australia, leading to massive destruction. According to IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), climate change will increase the likelihood of deaths in Australia from heat stress and bushfires, and may place more than 250,000 Australian homes at risk from rising sea levels. “While March and April marks the cyclone season in Australia, months of April and May see cyclones in India. Last year Cyclone Mahasen in the Bay of Bengal, made a landfall in southern Bangladesh on the 16th of May, bringing heavy rainfall to Sri lanka and India on the way”, said G.P Sharma of Skymet’s Meteorology Division. Photo by theaustralian.
