Exmouth cut off by land and air after Cyclone Narelle causes ‘extensive’ damage ”
Residents in Exmouth are assessing the trail of destruction left by Tropical Cyclone Narelle as the system weakens on Saturday morning and continues to move south.
The cyclone crossed the WA coast at Coral Bay on Friday afternoon as a category 3 system, bringing winds of up to 250km/h, blowing off roofs, uprooting trees, flooding homes and knocking out power.
A day later, Exmouth Shire chairman Matthew Niikkula said the town had suffered “major damage” and most residents were without running water.
“The airport has suffered major damage to the terminal so we will not be able to take on and off regular passenger aircraft for some time. The runway itself has sustained major damage, the RAF is working to clear this and repair it as quickly as possible so we can get some support aircraft in,” he said.
“Right now, everyone is on emergency power and we are still disconnected by road and air at the moment, except for the helicopter.”
Niikkula said no injuries were reported as a result of the storm, but the damage to properties was “extensive.”
“The roofs were closed, the shacks were destroyed, the fences were destroyed,” he said.
The buildings of supermarkets and fuel stations in the town were also damaged.
Niikkula will attend emergency talks on Saturday on how best to get the town back on its feet, after which the community will be notified.
Local resident Violeta Brosig said this was the worst hurricane she’s experienced since moving to the city 17 years ago.
“It was the scariest,” he said.
“I’m not worried about property at all, to be honest. Property is everything. I just want to know how everyone is doing.”
Almost 350 mm of rain fell as the cyclone passed; this was equivalent to a year’s rainfall in 12 hours. The town was on red alert for more than 24 hours.
Residents reported that the town was covered in red soil as the wind kicked up Pilbara dust, creating an eerie post-apocalyptic scene.
“The wind started around 20.00 [Thursday night] and then it just kept getting worse and worse,” Yarni McLachlan said. 9 News Perth.
“Pretty scary winds.”
Bureau of Meteorology spokeswoman Christie Johnson said the system continued to move south and inland on Saturday.
“Yesterday, Severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle crossed the coast around Coral Bay as a category three in the afternoon, but was downgraded to a category two system as it moved inland and southward in the evening,” he said.
“It passed through northern Gascoyne by this morning. Last night we saw winds of 133km/h at Carnarvon Airport and 122km/h at Gascoyne Junction.”
“We saw the wind begin to pick up over the southern Gascoyne this morning, with gusts of 90km/h recorded at Mount Magnet and 89km/h at Golden Grove Airport.”
Johnson said the low air would bring devastating winds to inland communities, with 30 to 50 millimeters of rain expected to fall in six hours in some areas, which could cause flash flooding.
Overnight Dalgety Downs recorded the most rainfall with 112mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours.
Talisker Station resident Judy Rogers said her property, located about 150 kilometers east of Shark Bay, was damaged by the hurricane.
“We had very strong winds throughout the day yesterday that picked up a lot of red soil,” he said.
“The wind got stronger around 6 o’clock. The rain was coming horizontally.”
He said that they measured approximately 104 mm of rain, that part of the roof of the house was damaged and the roof of a shed was completely destroyed.
“Some of our power solar panels are in the ground,” he said.
“We lost a wall in the shearing shed. We performed better than we expected, given the strength of the winds we endured. We put this down to very good warnings that gave us time to prepare.”
Narelle was reclassified as a tropical low temperature on Saturday morning.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s Angus Hines said the weather system, now known as ex-tropical cyclone Narelle, was expected to bring severe weather to large parts of Western Australia on Saturday.
“As the weather system continues to move south, we will continue to see some weather impacts, primarily precipitation, but we will also see strong winds,” he said.
Narelle is currently passing through WA’s Wheatbelt and heading towards the Great South before heading towards the Esperance coastline this afternoon and this evening.
The system will set sail again tonight after making landfall twice before reforming (first in Queensland and then in the Northern Territory).
“This will be our last farewell to Narelle,” Hines said.
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