Severe Cyclone Ita heads towards Queensland
At 3:00pm today EST Severe Tropical Cyclone Ita, Category 5, was
about 130km N-NE of Cooktown and 290km N of Cairns, and moving S-SW at 14km
per hour.
Severe Tropical Cyclone Ita, Category 5, poses a serious threat to
communities along the far north Queensland coast. It is expected to
continue to move in a general S-SW direction and make landfall between Cape
Melville and Cooktown this evening or tonight as a CATEGORY 5 Tropical
Cyclone with VERY DESTRUCTIVE WINDS to 300km per hour near the core and
GALES extending out to 200km from the centre.
The cyclone is expected to weaken over land overnight, however, there
remains the possibility that Ita could track southwards close to the coast
tonight and maintain cyclone intensity for longer into Saturday. Should
this occur destructive winds with wind gusts to 150km per hour are possible
at Port Douglas and Cairns during Saturday.
Port situation as of 1500 hours is as follows:
CAIRNS:
Blue Alert – no major shipping.
CAPE FLATTERY:
Red Alert – port is closed.
COOKTOWN:
Red Alert – port is closed.
MOURILYAN:
Blue Alert – precautions in place.
KARUMBA:
Normal operations.
THURSDAY ISLAND:
Normal operations.
HAY POINT/DALRYMPLE BAY/MACKAY ANCHORAGES:
All ships presently at anchorages have been advised to prepare for possible
severe weather in the next few days. In preparation for this, ships at
anchor are advised to ballast down and pay out more cable to hold the ship
in position and be in readiness to leave the port at short notice, as
directed by the Regional Harbour Master.
