A WOMAN from Hyndburn has told of her ‘terrifying ordeal’ after a cyclone hit her new home in Australia.

Ashley Linklater, 23, said she and her husband were forced to shelter in a home-made bunker in their Cairns home, made from a table and a mattress.

Cyclone Yasi hit the region last week and wrecked 150 homes as well as making a further 650 uninhabitable.

Mrs Linklater went to Australia for a year-long backpacking expedition in February 2009. But she met her husband and settled in his home-town after getting married last May.

The cyclone in North Queensland came just weeks after severe floods in South Queensland.

Mrs Linklater, who lived in New Lane, Oswaldtwistle, said: “We set up our bunker, we pulled our dining table into the hallway and put the mattress from the spare bed on top of the table. We were advised to do this in case the roof came off the house we would still be sheltered.

“We set up a little bed under the table using duvets and pillows to try to make it comfortable on the tile floor. And then we literally just had to wait.

“At about 12pm on Wednesday the eye of the storm crossed onto land and that’s when the winds became very scary.”

Mrs Linklater, who works for sandwich chain Subway, said the noise of the wind made it sound ‘like the house was about to lift off the ground’.

She added: “I kept grabbing hold of Matt’s hand and squeezing it for comfort.

“This was my first cyclone and it was a terrifying ordeal, there were several times where I thought we were about to lose the house.

“The wind just kept on getting worse and worse and the noises were unbelievable. I have never experienced anything like that before. But having said that, in Cairns we were very lucky, the storm was worse in other places.”

She said that when the storm passed they discovered part of a neighbour’s roof in their garden, but their property was relatively unscathed.

She said: “Stepping outside after the cyclone had passed, it seemed very calm and a little earie, but again we were very lucky. The damage was minimal with mostly a lot of uprooted trees and plants.“