Glenda Now Cat 4 - 155 MPH Sustained, 180 Miles Off Oz NW Coast

[hatrack]

CANBERRA - A severe cyclone with winds exceeding 250 kph (155 mph) menaced northern parts of Western Australia on Wednesday, less than two weeks after a storm devastated homes and crops on the other side of the country.

Some oil and gas operations and key iron ore ports closed ahead of the arrival of Cyclone Glenda in an area known as "cyclone alley" because it is regularly swept by storms at this time of year.

The storm was downgraded later on Wednesday to a category four, one below the most powerful grade for cyclones, and was about 300 km (186 miles) north of the town of Port Hedland and moving slowly west, the Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre said. "Tomorrow's really the day where things could happen," said forecaster Adam Conroy from the centre in Perth, the capital of Western Australia.

The remote Pilbara region under threat is home to around 10,000 people and includes Woodside Petroleum's A$14 billion (US$10 billion) North West Shelf liquefied natural gas project at Karratha, about 1,300 km (800 miles) north of Perth. "Residents of the central and west Pilbara coast are warned of the risk of very destructive winds with gusts exceeding 250 km per hour during Thursday as this very dangerous cyclone nears the coast," the Bureau of Meteorology said on its Web site (www.bom.gov.au).

EDIT

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/35832/story.htm