With a holidaying British midwife at her side, Cairns woman Akiko Pruss delivered the infant in the darkness of the city`s evacuation centre -- a local college -- as Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi raged outside.
Healthy and right on schedule, the girl arrived at 6.09am after a three-hour labour, said midwife Carol Weeks who was holidaying in Cairns for her 25th wedding anniversary and was evacuated along with tens of thousands of locals.
"Someone said: `Is there someone medical in the room` and I said: `I`m a midwife` and they said: `Oh good, there is a baby due tomorrow`," Weeks told the Nine commercial network.
"The baby is doing great. She`s breastfeeding and mum`s wonderful," she added. "Everything went absolutely perfect."
Pruss`s mother had travelled from Japan and was with her daughter during the birth, in the college`s first aid room, said local councillor Linda Cooper.
She was yet to be named but Cooper said "Yasi" had certainly been struck from the list. "Akiko doesn`t like that name at all," she said.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said "many Australians would have been gladdened at heart" by the news, a sentiment echoed by Queensland Premier Anna Bligh.
"In the midst of all of this devastation, new life in some very touching circumstances," said Bligh.
"I`m sure it will bring a lot of smiles to faces in that centre today after such a difficult and distressing night."
Another two babies were born at Innisfail, also in the cyclone`s path, overnight as the savage storm lashed the coast.
"I understand the mum in the evacuation centre has ruled out calling her baby Yasi, and I suspect the other two mums will do the same," said Bligh.(*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
