One of the strongest cyclones in Australia's history was bearing down Wednesday on a remote and mostly uninhabited part of the northeast coast. Foreign tourists in far north Queensland resorts were among those being evacuated as cyclone Ingrid and its 290-kilometre-per-hour winds moved towards Cape York Peninsula. A spokeswoman for Queensland's emergency services said Ingrid was likely to come ashore on a 500-kilometre stretch between Cooktown and Cape Melville. All emergency services volunteers had been put on standby to arrange further evacuations and cope with damage from winds and flooding. Tropical Cyclone Warning Center forecaster Todd Smith said "people within 90 kilometers of Ingrid will get very destructive winds - it will cause quite significant damage". Ingrid is currently a category-four cyclone the same strength as Tracy, the 1974 cyclone that flattened the Northern Territory capital, Darwin. Tracy killed 49 people on land and 16 at sea. Smith warned that the high winds would whip up king tides that would inundate low-lying areas. "As the cyclone approaches, you can expect it to rise two meters above the high water mark, causing salt water inundation for a fair way inland," King told Australia's AAP news agency.
