, samantha mohr, from the weather center. how damaging could it be? >> it is tremendously damaging and it is huge. as you see, the diameter of the system, tropical storm-force winds cover some 185,000 square kilometers. and this storm has been around for a while, since last weekend, we were talking about it. over the solomon islands. it continued its movement off it the west, strengthening as it went. so this would be equal to a super typhoon if it were in the western pacific. look how well defined that eye wall is, as well. that center of circulation as it approaches cooktown here. now the winds gusting up to 305 kilometers per hour. those are gusts. sustained 250. it does make it equal to a category 5 on the saffir-simpson scale. say clones, hurricanes, they -- cyclones, hurricanes, they like to follow the path of least resistance. that's what the trough of low pressure is. it will funnel it down the eastern coast of australia, and we'll have concerns about storm surge as we head into the next 48 hours, into the weekend. this area's particularly prone to that. and you can see it