BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Residents have begun battening down homes and businesses with Tropical Cyclone Kirrily forecast to cross the Australian northeast coast on Thursday, bringing destructive winds and flooding rain. Authorities said the storm system was still tracking west across the Coral Sea and that gusts of 140 kph (87 mph) are forecast as the cyclone crossed the mainland on Thursday night. “It’s still making a pretty direct track for Townsville, but it is picking up speed along with its strength as well,” Miriam Bradbury from the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Wednesday. The Bureau said the cyclone would bring intense rainfall that could cause “dangerous and life threatening flash flooding,” and storm…
