Reply #6: This is just horrible.

[beam me up scottie]

In a previous storm in the area, underwater damage was concentrated around the cyclone's central "eye" — a zone of extremely low-pressure air.

"The intense part of the latest storm is somewhere in the region of 50 kilometers (30 miles) across," said David Wachenfeld, director of science at the government body that cares for the reef.

"The Great Barrier Reef is more than 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) long, so what you're looking at here is a narrow band of damage going through the middle of a very large area."