Sydney: Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi, a top-category storm, hit the Australian coast early Thursday, a meteorologist said, packing destructive winds which were expected to rage for hours.
As the winds that heralded Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi's arrival began battering hundreds of kilometres (miles) of Queensland coast, officials told residents it was now too late to escape the monster storm.
"The time for movement and evacuation has now passed," state Premier Ana Bligh said, terming Yasi "the most catastrophic storm to ever hit our coast. "People should be sheltering wherever they are."
Yasi was upgraded to a category five storm from category four as it menaced the populous east coast, where it was expected to hit around 10:00 pm (1200 GMT) on Wednesday, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
"This impact is likely to be more life-threatening than any experienced during recent generations," it said in an ominous warning that raised the expected strength of the looming storm.
Yasi, packing a 650-kilometre front and an eye measuring about 35 kilometres across, was on course to slam directly into the area between the tourist hub of Cairns and Cardwell to the south.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Yasi looked like the worst cyclone in Australian history and said the nation was with Queenslanders as they faced "many, many dreadful, frightening hours" waiting for it to strike.
"This is probably the worst cyclone that our nation has ever seen. In the hours of destruction that are coming to them, all of Australia is going to be thinking of them," she said.
Yasi was expected to generate highly destructive winds of more than 280 kilometres per hour, 27.5 inches of rain and a storm surge that is threatening to flood towns and tourist resorts.
