Queensland afraid of "second wave" after cyclone
Australian officials are urging tourists not to cancel holidays to far northeastern Australia after tropical cyclone Larry hit the coast of Queensland. Officials said cancelled vacations may lead to a “second wave” of devastation in a region popular with tourists.
“It has of course been a very serious event in a particular area, namely around Innisfail,” Daniel Gschwind, of the Queensland Tourism Industry Council, told Agence France Presse. “It’s not advisable to travel by road around that region.”
“However, we also want to make sure that we don’t have a second wave of destruction wash over the whole state, especially in the regions which haven’t been affected,” he exaplained.
“We don’t want people to cancel holidays to Queensland or even to Australia because they are under the impression that the entire state has been destroyed.”
Cyclone Larry swept inland early Monday near the town of Innisfail and left hundreds homeless and a bill of nearly one billion dollars ($720 million) in damage.
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The area hit is popular with backpackers seeking fruit-picking work, has been devastated/ Although other destinations in Queensland—Townsville, Cairns, Port Douglas and the Whitsunday islands in the Great Barrier Reef were largely unaffected.
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