Damage minor as cyclone crosses Australia's north-east coast

Only minor damage was reported asdawn broke Saturdayafter tropical Cyclone Ita crossed Australia's north-east coastbringing torrential rain and gale-force winds, according to dpa.Ita made landfall late Friday as a category 4 system at CapeFlattery, 60 kilometers north of Cooktown and very sparcelypopulated.Ita was downgraded to category 2 as it moved inland."There's a lot of vegetation on the road and unfortunately been some buildings damaged," Cooktown Mayor Peter Scott told local news agencyAAP. "But there hasn't been a lot of structural damage."Early reports are that two Cooktown houses and a pub lost theirroofs.Authorities had warned that Ita, initially a full-strength category 5cyclone, would be catastrophic with winds of 230 kilometres per hour blasting away buildings and incessant rain causing widespread flashflooding.But contrary to predictions it came ashore on an ebb tide, limitingflooding and reducing the risk of a storm surge inundating seafrontproperties. Diana Spiker told the news agency that she was pleasantly surprisedwhen dawn broke."They were talking about a category 5 at one stage so I thoughtthere'd have been a lot more damage," she said.Queensland state premier Campbell Newman, who is directing reliefefforts from Cairns, said wind gusts had torn down power lines and that thousands of homes would be without power until they were putback up.