A massive cyclone which slammed into Australia's northwest coast almost wiped the small fishing town of Exmouth off the map, destroying a third of its buildings, officials said yesterday.
But miraculously, they said, no one was injured or killed by what was perhaps the worst cyclone ever to hit Australia.
"It was like the sound of screaming banshees (demons)," said state emergency service official Jan McClelland in Exmouth, 1,200 kilometres north of Perth.
Cyclone Vance, which packed the strongest winds ever recorded in mainland Australia at 267 kilometres an hour, also disrupted oil, gas and gold operations after slamming into the northwest coast on Monday.
Yesterday, Vance was downgraded from the maximum category five to a category one storm as it headed south towards the gold mining town of Kalgoorlie, forcing the closure of Australia's biggest open-cut gold mine the "Super Pit."
Residents of Exmouth, which bore the full force of the cyclone, woke yesterday to scenes of destruction and have been advised to leave town until power and water are restored.
Exmouth Shire Council spokesman Kerry Graham said the town looked "like a bomb hit it," with metal power poles bent at 90 degrees and houses in splintered ruins.
The town of 2,400 people stands in the centre of "Cyclone Alley" and had been purposely built to withstand tropical storms.
Emergency officials said a 47-year-old man, missing after he failed to leave his aquaculture operation on Exmouth Gulf, was found safe.
Exmouth officials said 112 houses were destroyed and 300 damaged when Cyclone Vance swept within a few kilometres of the town. Power and water supplies were also cut, trees uprooted and boats washed out of Exmouth Gulf and into town.
"It has certainly devastated the town," said emergency services official Doug Bathgate.
The Western Australian Government yesterday declared a natural disaster for the cyclone devastated northwest coast.
"Clearly, I am distressed as all Australians are at the damage which is being done," Western Australia State Premier Richard Court told reporters in Perth.
Cyclone Tracy, which had a category four rating, was the worst tropical storm to hit Australia. Tracy flattened the northern city of Darwin on Christmas Eve 1974, killing 60 people.