SYDNEY — A menacing Cyclone Debbie struck the northeastern Australian coastline with devastating force Tuesday, slowly churning its path of destruction inland with wind gusts as high as 160 miles per hour, forcing tens of thousands to flee and leaving at least 48,000 homes without power.

After lashing low-lying tourist islands off the coast, the storm bore down on the mainland, tearing roofs from homes and drenching low-lying coastal towns with heavy rainfall. Its slow, potent march inland had officials fearing widespread damage, but the loss of telephone service and power left emergency responders struggling to assess the situation.

The storm made landfall around 1 p.m. near the resort town of Airlie Beach. By nightfall, it was downgraded to a Category 3 storm, from a Category 4, as it began “curving to a more southerly track over inland Queensland,’’ the Bureau of Meteorology said. A Category 3 storm on the Australian scale typically entails gusts of more than 102 miles per hour.

Among the longer-term concerns was further damage to the Great Barrier Reef, which has already been seriously degraded by warming waters.

New York Times