Cyclone batters Australia's west coast

CANBERRA, Mar 9 (Reuters) Three people were feared dead and up to 20 injured today as a powerful tropical cyclone swept across Australia's northwest coast, tearing roofs from homes and sweeping into a mining camp with destructive winds.

Cyclone George struck the coast of Western Australia near the remote iron ore exporting terminal at Port Hedland with 275 kph winds, disrupting mining and oil operations in the worst storm to hit the region since Cyclone Vance in 1999.

''We had our patio start to lift, we had fences being pushed over, trees being snapped, everything flying around,'' Port Hedland resident Steve Fitzgibbon told local radio.

The cyclone, which forecasters said may have been a maximum level five storm as it crossed the coast, hit a mine construction camp owned by Fortescue Metals Group, Western Australian Premier Alan Carpenter said.

''We have got reports, unconfirmed reports, of three fatalities there and an unknown number of people injured in highly destructive wind impact on those mining camps,'' Carpenter said. The camp, 100 km south of Port Hedland, was one of three in the area, each holding around 300 people.

The WA Fire and Emergency Services Authority said it hoped to get a helicopter to the area to evacuate the injured to hospital.

Fortescue confirmed one death and several injuries, but 150 kph winds were making it difficult to reach the area.

''Fortescue's focus is on giving every possible assistance to the emergency services and safeguarding the welfare of its workers in the Pilbara region,'' the company said in a statement.

Residents in Port Hedland were still sheltering today morning as the storm's remnants continued to bring strong winds.

''We honestly just heard these sounds like roofs or tin flying everywhere,'' Port Hedland resident Peta McHardy said.

A second storm, tropical cyclone Jacob, was also heading towards Western Australia, but it was still far off the coast, south of Australia's remote Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.

Mining company BHP Billiton closed its iron ore port operations in Port Hedland, sent half its mining staff home and shut one of its key iron ore operations.

Ships in the area's iron ore ports moved to the safety of deeper waters to ride out the cyclone and await the possible arrival of category two cyclone Jacob.

The cyclones have also forced the shutdown of almost half the country's oil production, with at least 180,600 barrels per day (bpd) of offshore production shut in. Australia produced about 418,000 barrels of oil per day in 2006, according to government figures.

The Bureau of Meteorology said winds would ease through the day as cyclone George moved inland.

Cyclones are a regular feature of the Australian summer in the tropical north and the season still has another month to run. The most deadly on record was Cyclone Tracy, which killed 65 people in the northern city of Darwin in 1974.

Woodside Petroleum Ltd, Australia's largest independent oil and gas producer, shut the 100,000-bpd Cossack Pioneer field, part of the North West Shelf venture, and its nearby 7,000-bpd Legendre project.

Oil and gas producer Santos Ltd has suspended production at its 55,000-bpd Mutineer-Exeter oil field, and Chevron Corp. was shutting its Thevenard and Barrow Island fields which together produce about 8,000 barrels a day.

Rio Tinto mines about 120 million tonnes of ore in the Pilbara and BHP about 109 million tonnes, most of which is shipped to steel mills in Japan, China and elsewhere in Asia.

Port Hedland and nearby Roebourne are the two major export outlets for the iron ore, salt and natural gas mined and processed from the Pilbara, which is often referred to as the economic engine room of Australia because of the billions of dollars in export revenue it generates annually.

REUTERS SY SSC1033