A powerful cyclone moving in on Australia was upgraded to a maximum strength Category 5 storm, with the likelihood of serious damage and risk to life, disaster officials said.

"Severe tropical cyclone Yasi is a large and very powerful tropical cyclone that poses an extremely serious threat to life and property. This impact is likely to be more life threatening than any experienced during recent generations," Queensland disaster officials said in an updated cyclone warning.

Cyclone Yasi is expected to make landfall overnight on the Queensland coast between Cairns and Innisfail.

Australia evacuated thousands of people from its northeast coast on Tuesday, with officials saying it could even threaten areas deep inland that were ruined by floods last month.

Forecasters expect the storm to generate winds greater than 175 mph and bring up to three feet of rain when it hits the northern coast of tropical Queensland state, making it even stronger than Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005.

Massive Hurricane / Cyclone Australia

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said sea levels would rise significantly as Yasi crossed the coast. 

With a strong monsoon feeding Yasi's 400-mile wide front, the storm was also expected to maintain its intensity long after smashing into the coast and could sweep inland as far as the outback mining city of Mt. Isa, 600 miles inland.

"This storm is huge and it is life-threatening," Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said. "I know many of us will feel that Queensland has already borne about as much as we can bear when it comes to disasters and storms, but more is being asked of us — and I am confident that we are able to rise to this next challenge."

More than 9,000 people in low-lying and coastal parts of Cairns have been ordered to evacuate their homes as the sea is expected to surge at least 6.5 feet and flood significant parts of the city.

Bligh said the military would airlift 250 patients from the waterfront Cairns Base and Cairns Private hospitals to Brisbane, the state capital. Elderly care homes were also being evacuated.

Many people were deciding on their own to leave, said Ian Stewart, the state's disaster coordinator. "In reality, we would like people to get as far south as possible, as quickly as possible, without of course breaking the rules," he told reporters.

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