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Cyclone Tessi crosses Australia's northeast coast

CANBERRA: Tropical Cyclone Tessi weakened as it crossed Australia's northeast coast early on Monday but still brought with it the threat of flooding inland rains.

Tessi brought down some trees and power lines with wind gusts of up to 130 km (81 miles) an hour as it crossed the coast south of Ingham, 1,240 km (770 miles) north of Brisbane in the state of Queensland.

Jim Davidson, senior meteorologist at the Queensland Cyclone Warning Centre, said Tessi was downgraded to a category one cyclone from category two just before it crossed the coast at about 9:00 a.m.

Australia's far north has barely had time to recover from Cyclone Steve, which damaged homes and uprooted trees with winds of up to 170 km (106 miles) when it hit the resort town of Cairns in late February.

Strong winds associated with Cyclone Tessi were expected to cause more damage to Australia's sugarcane crop, industry officials said.

Meteorologists are also monitoring a low pressure system near New Caledonia, which they said has the potential to develop into a cyclone off the Queensland coast within the next 24 hours. -Reuters