Residents flee as cyclone approaches northwest Australia

PERTH, Australia (AP) — Miners, cattle ranchers, tourists and Indigenous locals are evacuating from Australia’s remote northwest coast as an intensifying tropical cyclone approaches. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said Wednesday that Cyclone Ilsa is expected to peak as a Category 4 storm as it crosses the Pilbara coast of Western Australia state somewhere between the iron ore export town of Port Hedland in the west and the tourist town of Broome in the east late Thursday or early Friday. Bureau manager Todd Smith warns abnormally high tides, large waves and flooding were possible and people should avoid coastal and low-lying areas. On Wednesday morning, Ilsa was a Category 2 cyclone moving south over the Indian Ocean from a position 217 miles northwest of Broome, the bureau said.