create-react-app npm start Error: Cannot find module '#webassemblyjs/ast' - node.js

Question

I am just starting to learn react and I'm following the first part of this tutorial. https://www.codecademy.com/articles/how-to-create-a-react-app
I have run the following commands in Terminal:
npm install -g create-react-app
create-react-app ravenous
# I've also tried npx create-react-app ravenous as per the official React website)
# Both timesI receive a successful output that ends with 'Happy hacking'
cd ravenous
npm start
But I receive the following error in the terminal.
npm start
> ravenous#0.1.0 start /Users/sarah/sites/ravenous
> react-scripts start
module.js:559
throw err;
^
Error: Cannot find module '#webassemblyjs/ast'
at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:557:15)
at Function.Module._load (module.js:484:25)
at Module.require (module.js:606:17)
at require (internal/module.js:11:18)
at Object.<anonymous> (/Users/sarah/sites/ravenous/node_modules/webpack/lib/wasm/WebAssemblyParser.js:7:11)
at Module._compile (module.js:662:30)
at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:673:10)
at Module.load (module.js:575:32)
at tryModuleLoad (module.js:515:12)
at Function.Module._load (module.js:507:3)
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! ravenous#0.1.0 start: `react-scripts start`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the ravenous#0.1.0 start script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR! /Users/sarah/.npm/_logs/2018-10-16T17_12_05_840Z-debug.log
In node_modules I do have the #webassemblyjs/ast folder.
The debug.log has this:
0 info it worked if it ends with ok
1 verbose cli [ '/usr/local/bin/node', '/usr/local/bin/npm', 'start' ]
2 info using npm#5.6.0
3 info using node#v9.6.1
4 verbose run-script [ 'prestart', 'start', 'poststart' ]
5 info lifecycle ravenous#0.1.0~prestart: ravenous#0.1.0
6 info lifecycle ravenous#0.1.0~start: ravenous#0.1.0
7 verbose lifecycle ravenous#0.1.0~start: unsafe-perm in lifecycle true
8 verbose lifecycle ravenous#0.1.0~start: PATH: /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/npm-lifecycle/node-gyp-bin:/Users/s$
9 verbose lifecycle ravenous#0.1.0~start: CWD: /Users/sarah/sites/ravenous
10 silly lifecycle ravenous#0.1.0~start: Args: [ '-c', 'react-scripts start' ]
11 silly lifecycle ravenous#0.1.0~start: Returned: code: 1 signal: null
12 info lifecycle ravenous#0.1.0~start: Failed to exec start script
13 verbose stack Error: ravenous#0.1.0 start: `react-scripts start`
13 verbose stack Exit status 1
13 verbose stack at EventEmitter.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/npm-lifecycle/index.js:285:16)
13 verbose stack at EventEmitter.emit (events.js:127:13)
13 verbose stack at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/npm-lifecycle/lib/spawn.js:55:14)
13 verbose stack at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:127:13)
13 verbose stack at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:933:16)
13 verbose stack at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:220:5)
14 verbose pkgid ravenous#0.1.0
15 verbose cwd /Users/sarah/sites/ravenous
16 verbose Darwin 16.7.0
17 verbose argv "/usr/local/bin/node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "start"
18 verbose node v9.6.1
19 verbose npm v5.6.0
20 error code ELIFECYCLE
21 error errno 1
22 error ravenous#0.1.0 start: `react-scripts start`
22 error Exit status 1
23 error Failed at the ravenous#0.1.0 start script.
23 error This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
24 verbose exit [ 1, true ]
Here is my ravenous/package.json
{
"name": "ravenous",
"version": "0.1.0",
"private": true,
"dependencies": {
"react": "^16.5.2",
"react-dom": "^16.5.2",
"react-scripts": "2.0.5"
},
"scripts": {
"start": "react-scripts start",
"build": "react-scripts build",
"test": "react-scripts test",
"eject": "react-scripts eject"
},
"eslintConfig": {
"extends": "react-app"
},
"browserslist": [
">0.2%",
"not dead",
"not ie <= 11",
"not op_mini all"
]
}
I've checked the folder permissions on the filesystem once the ravenous folder is created, set everything to Read & Write and then retried npm start but this doesn't seem to make a difference.
I've tried deleting package-lock.json and node_modules and rerunning npm install. It doesn't help the issue although strangely package-lock.json is not recreated when I do this.
I am on Mac OS Sierra 10.12.6
npm -v gives me 5.6.0
node -v gives me 9.6.1

Answer 1

I downloaded the "recommended for most users" release of Node.js (currently 8.12.0 LTS) and reinstalled node.
I'm now on node 8.12.0 and npm 6.4.1 and npm start is now working.