SYDNEY: Tropical Cyclone Narelle was forecast to hit Australia’s Northern Territory on Saturday after a day earlier bringing destructive winds, heavy rain and power outages to the country’s northeast coast.
Narelle, a category two system moving west in the Gulf of Carpentaria, would likely reach the remote east of the territory late on Saturday, the nation’s weather bureau said.
“Narelle is forecast to strengthen during Saturday as it tracks quickly westwards,” the bureau said, forecasting destructive winds of up to 185 kph (115 mph).
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On Friday, Narelle made landfall as a category four system, a rung short of the strongest, in neighbouring Queensland state about 550 km (340 miles) north of Cairns, the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef tourist attraction.
Weather officials later downgraded the storm as it moved inland.
Narelle comes after Tropical Cyclone Fina hit the Northern Territory in November and conjured up painful memories of Cyclone Tracy that wiped out much of the region’s capital Darwin on Christmas Day 1974.
Tracy killed 66 people in what was one of Australia’s worst natural disasters.
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