SYDNEY: A severe tropical cyclone lashed north-western Australia on Friday bringing the strongest winds the country has ever recorded, but officials said towns and cities appeared to have escaped the worst of the storm.

Tropical Cyclone Ilsa made landfall in the early hours as a category five storm — the strongest on the scale — near the sparsely-populated town of Pardoo, about 19 hours’ drive northeast of Perth.

Images from the scene showed the storm’s destructive power, blasting through walls and tearing off the roof at the Pardoo petrol station.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s Todd Smith said the cyclone brought a wind gust of 289 kilometres per hour — believed to be the strongest on record in Australia.

Ilsa also packed an Australian record for the strongest sustained wind speeds over a 10-minute period — averaging 218 kilometres per hour.

The previous record was 194 kph, set by Cyclone George in 2007.

“It just shows how strong this system was as it approached the coast,” Smith told reporters.

For the region’s largest towns and settlements, it was a narrow escape, and they appear to have escaped major damage, authorities said. “I’ve been told that early assessments in those areas show damage is fairly minimal,” Minister Sue Ellery told reporters.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2023