‘Damage will be widespread’: Tropical Cyclone Narelle brings 295km/h wind gusts, with tourists evacuated and schools closed | Tropical Cyclone Narelle
Severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle is expected to make landfall in northern Queensland on Friday morning as a category 4 monster storm, bringing devastating winds in excess of 295km/h, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
The intense tornado rapidly intensified over the past 48 hours and by Thursday morning had grown to a category five storm, blowing westward, about 410 km east of the small town of Coen. Coen’s population is approximately 330.
On Thursday afternoon, the bureau said the tropical cyclone would make landfall as a category four storm at 7 a.m. Friday morning, three hours earlier than thought.
If it intensifies and passes the coast as a category five, it would be the first system of its kind to hit the Cape York area since Hurricane Mahina killed more than 300 people in March 1899.
Premier David Crisafulli said Narelle would be the fourth category five hurricane to pass the Queensland coast in half a century.
Vulnerable residents were evacuated, tourists flew out on the last remaining flights, and schools in the warning area were closed.
More than 100 emergency service personnel were sent north, while police went door to door to ensure local people were prepared.
Material shipping containers arrived and emergency generators were put on standby while the area was told there would be a power outage.
‘This is a serious system’
Crisafulli said about eight schools with about 780 students were closed Thursday, with others likely to be closed tomorrow.
BoM forecaster Angus Hines told Guardian Australia on Thursday morning Narelle was moving “rapidly” westwards at around 20km/h and was experiencing rapid intensification to become a category five system, the current highest.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Crisafulli warned residents about the effects of strong winds, heavy rain, storm surge and flash flooding.
“I know these communities are resilient, they have been here before and they know what wind and a lot of rain is like.
“But this is a serious system and I would ask people to take it seriously because this is the kind of thing that doesn’t happen very often.”
“If a category five system passes the Queensland coast it will be the fourth such occurrence in half a century.
“I can’t cover this up. The damage will be widespread.”
‘Flooding is expected’
Warmer-than-normal ocean temperatures, speed, and favorable wind conditions in the Coral Sea” [Narelle] to quickly intensify and sit near the top of the scale,” Hines said.
Narelle was expected to make landfall on Friday morning and could bring showers of between 150 and 300 mm per day for the Cape York area, with up to 450 mm of rainfall possible in some areas.
“This is enough to cause flash flooding and cause river levels to rise, so we should expect flooding as the rain moves through the river systems,” Hines said.
Category five storms can produce maximum wind speeds in excess of 200 km per hour and gusts in excess of 250 km per hour, causing widespread destruction of buildings and vegetation.
Narelle is expected to pass over the Gulf of Carpentaria on Saturday evening before crossing the Top End as a category three system.
The expected track is for the storm to travel south of Darwin and near Katherine and the Daly River, which have been subject to devastating flooding in recent weeks.
After an expected westward move across the Indian Ocean, Narelle has the potential to make a third landfall next week, where conditions are also conducive to a hurricane, Hines said.
The last category 5 storm to pass the Australian coastline was storm Ilsa, which hit north of Hedland Harbor in Western Australia in April 2023, recording a record wind gust of 289 km/h.
The last time Queensland experienced a category five storm along the coast was Marcia, which hit a relatively desolate area north of Yeppoon in 2015.
Crisafulli said Wednesday that Narelle may be the largest system in living memory for communities in the line of fire.
Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi, one of the state’s strongest hurricanes on record, formed as a category five storm in 2011 and passed between Innisfail and Cardwell, further south of the Narelle track.
Adjunct Professor Andrew Watkins, a Monash University climate scientist and Climate Council councilor, said Narelle was passing through the Coral Sea, which has seen record sea surface temperatures in recent months.
“The Coral Sea is almost half a degree warmer than it was 30 or 40 years ago. Higher ocean temperatures fuel tropical hurricanes,” he said.
Ocean temperatures along the Narelle track were 1 to 2 degrees warmer than average, Watkins said. The Coral Sea recently recorded its hottest December, hottest February, hottest summer, hottest calendar year and hottest fiscal year, Watkins said.
– with AAP
