Australia buffeted by record winds as cyclone hits northwest

A severe tropical cyclone has crashed into northwestern Australia with the strongest winds the country has ever recorded but officials said the region’s towns and cities appeared to have escaped the worst of the storm.

Tropical Cyclone Ilsa was upgraded to a Category 5 storm – the strongest on the scale – shortly before it made landfall near the sparsely-populated town of Pardoo, about 19 hours’ drive northeast of Perth.