Powerful cyclone pounds Australia

Tropical cyclone Larry crossed the Australian coast near Cowley Beach, south of Cairns yesterday. Picture shows destruction the cyclone caused to the Innisfail High School. PHOTO: AFP

Packing winds up to 290 kilometres (180 miles) an hour, Tropical Cyclone Larry tore roofs off houses, uprooted trees, caused power blackouts and terrified residents who had battened down to prepare for the worst.

"It's just like a bomb has gone off, like something went through and just bombed it," said Amanda Fitzpatrick, owner of a motel outside Innisfail, a farming town in Queensland state in the direct path of the storm.

"It was so terrifying, we were all crying," she told ABC radio.

No deaths were immediately reported from the highest-level Category Five storm, which authorities said was losing steam as it made its way inland after hitting the northeast coast at 8:00 am (2200 GMT Sunday).

But the Great Barrier Reef, which lies off the coast, was probably badly damaged by the storm, a scientist for the UN's World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority told AFP.

Prime Minister John Howard said the government and the military would do everything possible to help victims, adding he was "very confident" there would not be chaos like that in New Orleans last year after Hurricane Katrina.

"If any military assets are needed, they will be readily available," Howard told reporters.

Innisfail bore the brunt of the destruction, with authorities reporting many houses destroyed and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crops -- such as sugar cane, bananas and pawpaws -- wiped out.

"I'd say every second building is damaged -- some completely," State Emergency Service official Alan Green told the Australian Associated Press news agency.