Hundreds of families sought shelter in an Abu Dhabi-funded evacuation centre after Tropical Cyclone Marcia battered Queensland, Australia this weekend.
Australian paramedic Kate Cudmore, who was at the evacuation centre at Yeppoon High School, said about 500 people were sheltering there, according to Yahoo! News.
“Many people didn’t want to leave their homes, but because they’re in lower lying areas it was strongly encouraged,” she said.
“There is a lot of anxious people, a lot of people in a small area, so a lot of different family groups and mix of different people, so people probably feel very out of their comfort zones.”
In 2011, the Abu Dhabi government donated US$32 million (Dh120m) to Queensland to help protect the northeast Australian state against future storms. The funds contributed to the construction of 10 multipurpose shelters that could each protect more than 500 people. Yeppoon High School was the first of 10 cyclone shelters funded by Abu Dhabi to open in 2012.
Ian Boon, then principal of Yeppoon High School, told The National having his school chosen as the site for the southernmost of the 10 cyclone shelters was like winning the lottery.
"It's designed to be hit with debris. They were very pedantic in ensuring they had the right materials to withstand strong winds and debris," he told The National. "The amount of concrete that went into the footings was amazing."
Marcia is the sixth-recorded Category 5 cyclone to hit Australia. It made landfall in the largely uninhabited Shoalwater Bay on Friday morning and “grazed” the regional town of Yeppoon and maintained a lot of its force to directly hit the city of Rockhampton as a category three, according to ABC News.
Townships have been extensively damaged, with roofs ripped off homes, power lines down and trees uprooted.
newsdesk@thenational.ae