Cyclone Narelle: Residents count the cost after cyclone ravages towns
Residents of a series of isolated coastal towns hit by a devastating hurricane are leaving their homes to assess the damage.
Tropical Cyclone Narelle was downgraded to a category two system overnight after making landfall in northwestern Western Australia.
The storm left a trail of destruction across the Pilbara and North West Cape before crossing the coast near Coral Bay and heading towards Carnarvon.
Shire chairman Eddie Smith said Carnarvon was covered in a thick, pink dust storm for about two hours, with winds reaching more than 100km per hour.
The resort town of Exmouth, 1,250km north of Perth, was hit with the full force of Narelle’s fury as the category four storm produced winds in excess of 250km/h.
Roofs of buildings were blown off, electricity was cut, homes were flooded and about 50 people were forced to leave the wind-damaged evacuation center of the isolated town.
Narelle moved southward into Coral Bay and made landfall just south of the small town before weakening to a category three system.
The storm moved east of Carnarvon as a category three storm on Friday afternoon and then weakened to category two north-east of Kalbarri and Geraldton.
“We’re expecting pretty significant damage,” Department and Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Darren Klemm said Friday.
“As we gain a clearer picture of the extent of damage, (emergency services) will continue to work with local authorities and communities in the area to determine what support they need for ongoing impacts.”
Mr Klemm said Exmouth was expected to be severely affected.
He said Narelle was an “incredibly complex hurricane” because of its path from the Kimberley to the Pilbara coastline.
“It was always going to have multiple impacts on multiple towns as it came down the coast.”
Narelle is expected to continue its southeast track toward the northern Wheat Belt on Saturday.
Harmful winds and heavy rainfall are possible in south-east WA as the system passes through the Wheatbelt region before crossing the south coast into the Southern Ocean.
