Australian resort towns along Great Barrier Reef brace for cyclone

SYDNEY: Thousands of people in coastal towns along Australia's Great Barrier Reef are without power and sheltering within their homes as the epicentre of a tropical cyclone nears Queensland on Wednesday afternoon.

Tropical Cyclone Jasper was slowly making landfall around the town of Wujal Wujal, roughly 115 km (72 miles) northeast of thepopular tourist destination of Cairns at 3 p.m. (0500 GMT), bringing wind gusts of up to 140 kph (87 mph), large waves and the risk of life-threatening flash flooding, the bureau of meteorology said on Wednesday.

Authorities upgraded the storm to Category 2, the second lowest of five categories, on Wednesday afternoon.

The cyclone is pounding hundreds of kilometres of northern coastline popular with tourists looking to visit the Great Barrier Reef.

Cairns resident Rob Lattimore told ABC News all the boats had been pulled out of the marina and he, his wife and two daughters were sheltering at home as the winds picked up outside.

"The girls are a little apprehensive, they've never seen a cyclone before, but they're in good spirits," he said.

The Royal Australian Navy said on Wednesday it had evacuated four bureau of meteorology staff stationed on a remote offshore weather station roughly 480 km offshore as the storm approached over the weekend.

Along the coast more than 90 people were in evacuation centres and thousands were without power according to an outage map from provider Ergon Energy.

Jasper is expected to weaken as it crosses land although authorities warn there is a moderate chance it could strengthen again next week as it crosses over the Gulf of Carpentaria and heads towards Darwin.

Australia is under the influence of the El Nino weather phenomenon this summer, which can provoke extreme weather from wildfires to tropical cyclones and prolonged droughts.

In neighbouring New South Wales, authorities warned temperatures could rise above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) as a heatwave likely to last until Friday swept across the state.