Exmouth cut off by land and air after Cyclone Narelle causes ‘extensive’ damage ”
Updated ,first published
Residents in Exmouth are assessing the trail of devastation left by Tropical Cyclone Narelle as it weakens to a nadir on Saturday morning as the system continues to move south.
The cyclone crossed the Western Australian coast at Coral Bay on Friday afternoon as a category 3 system, bringing winds of up to 250 km per hour that blew off roofs, uprooted trees, flooded homes and knocked out power.
A day later Exmouth Shire Chairman Matthew Niikkula said the town had suffered “major damage” and many residents were left without running water.
“The airport has sustained major damage to the terminal so we will not be able to receive or dispatch regular passenger aircraft for some time. The runway itself has sustained major damage, the RAAF 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 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 participated in emergency talks on Saturday on how best to get the town back on its feet, and the community will be notified later.
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 millimeters of rain fell as the hurricane passed; This is equivalent to a year 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. 9News Perth.
“Pretty scary winds.”
Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Christie Johnson said the system continued to move south and inland on Saturday.
“Yesterday, Severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle passed over the coast around Coral Bay as a category three in the afternoon, but was downgraded to a category 2 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 passed through WA’s Wheatbelt on Saturday, heading towards the Great South before crossing the Esperance coastline in the evening.
The system will be back out to sea on Saturday night after making landfall twice, first in Queensland and then in the Northern Territory, before realigning off the WA coast.
“This will be our last farewell to Narelle,” Hines said.
Start your day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
