Darwin, Tiwi clean up after cyclone

Residents of Australia’s Northern Territory were clearing streets yesterday after a damaging tropical cyclone brought intense winds overnight, toppling trees and traffic lights and cutting power across wide areas.

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Tropical Cyclone Fina had hovered off the Northern Territory coast for several days before rapidly strengthening into a Category 3 storm.

It swept through on Saturday night between the busy city of Darwin and the sparsely populated Tiwi Islands — an archipelago about 80 kilometres off the coast — where wind gusts reached 110 kilometres per hour.

The “very destructive core” of the cyclone has now moved away, butheavy rain and strong winds were expected to persist yesterday, Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Mr Angus Hines said.