Tropical cyclone hits Aust. port

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34021, 9 December 1975, Page 21

Tropical cyclone hits Aust. port

>r j Zealand Press Association —Copyright' SYDNEY, December 8. The Western Australian town of Port Hedland caught the back-wash of Tropical Cyclone Joan today, the unroofing of homes causing many people, among them 500 caravan-dwellers, to flee to safety.

The cyclone, bringing 140, m.p.h. winds and more than eight inches of rain, passed, about 28 nautical miles from! Port Hedland this morning. “I’ve been through some' cyclones, but this was a shocker,’’ the relief postmaster. at Port Hedland, Mr Darn ! Govan, said in a telephoned interview. The cyclone formed in the Timor Sea 12 days ago, and moved south-west, parallel with the coast, hitting the land 15 miles from Port Hedland at 6.30 a.m. Roofs were torn from buildings, trees were ripped out, and shops and homes were flooded. Most of the town’s power:

),had failed at 10 o’clock last i night, and telephone services 11 were also cut as sheets of i iron carried by the gale islashed through wires. >( Five hundred people fled i to the local high school fori /shelter as cars, caravans,) - and boats were being l . wrecked. More than eight inches of! , rain fell overnight, causing' ; flash-flooding and closing ! minor roads. Abnormally ; high tides accompanied the ; cyclone. Late this morning, Cy-; ;clone Joan was 30 miles) ‘ south-west of Port Hedland,, 1 and over the land. > She is expected to wea- 1 ken, but to bring further; ■(heavy rain. 1