A mighty cyclone, the worst in more than 30 years, has hit Australia's Queensland northeast coast. It flattened houses and cut power in the tourist region that has the Great Barrier Reef off its coast. More than 1000 tourists and local people have been evacuated, yet there are unconfirmed reports on people unaccounted for. The top category-five storm, with maximum wind gusts up to 250 km per hour, crossed the coast near Innisfail, south of Cairns, early on Monday, the Bureau of Meteorology said. Queensland Premier Peter Beattie declared the area a natural disaster zone as the storm destroyed sugar and banana crops. Larry is the strongest cyclone to strike Australia since Cyclone Tracy destroyed much of Darwin, in Australia's Northern Territory in 1974. Larry's strength is comparable to that of Hurricane Katrina, which flooded almost 80% of the US city of New Orleans on August 29.

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