Roofs have been torn off by “terrifying” wind gusts and hundreds of homes have lost power, as coastal communities in the path of Tropical Cyclone Narelle brace for impact.
Homes have been flooded by driving rain and people evacuated as Narelle barrelled along Western Australia’s north-west coast on Friday, unleashing gusts strong enough to shake buildings.
The Bureau of Meteorology said at 11pm local time on Friday (2am AEDT) that the storm was downgraded to a category two system after making landfall earlier in the evening.
The storm left a trail of destruction in the Pilbara and North West Cape before crossing the coast near Coral Bay and heading for Carnarvon.
Perth was experiencing heavy rainfall on Friday evening, with Bickley, Swanbourne and Jandakot recording more than 30mm of rainfall since 9am.
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia emailPeople in the state’s north, including Exmouth have been able to return to their homes to assess damage, with many finding scattered debris and damaged properties.
More than 600 Carnarvon properties in the north were without electricity on Friday evening, according to Horizon Power.
More than 50 schools across the state were closed on Friday and widespread power outages were reported.
On Friday morning the Western Power Outages website had reported 29 active outages.
The Department of Fire and Emergency Services WA (DFES) reported eight road closures on Friday morning, with a further five to be closed by 6pm.
Narelle was set to be the first system to make landfall as a tropical cyclone in three of Australia’s states and territories in more than 20 years after Cyclone Ingrid in 2005 and Steve in 2000.
The president of Exmouth Shire, Matthew Niikkula, said the emergency centre had received a big influx of people after roofs began lifting off houses.
“It’s a really, really terrifying experience. And I think there’s going to be a lot of tired, emotional people around over the next couple of days, and a lot of damage by the sound of it,” Niikkula said.
Power had been cut, leaving locals in the dark with candles and torches facing a long wait before crews could start restoring services.
Houses had been flooded by horizontal driving rain while wind gusts had shaken buildings.
WA energy minster, Amber-Jade Sanderson said three emergency response generators had been pre-deployed to Geraldton by Western Power.
By Friday morning, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) had received 25 calls for assistance across the Pilbara region.
DFES Commissioner Darren Klemm said the Exmouth evacuation centre was among the buildings damaged.
“Most reports in Exmouth [are] for roof damage at this time,” Klemm said. “We are aware of a boat has sunk in the canals in Exmouth and the roof damage at the local evacuation centre.”
Those sheltering at the centre were moved to a nearby church for safety.
Ilana Cherny, a senior meteorologist at the BoM, said the storm would likely cross “the coast … in the area between Coral Bay to Cape Cuvier near Carnarvon. This would mean crossing onshore during the afternoon.”
If Narelle remained offshore for longer, it could cross in the evening near Denham, she said.
The community in Denham, a tourism town in world heritage-listed Shark Bay, had bunkered down by Friday morning – completing clean ups and sandbagging in the days prior.
“Now we’re in a code red, the streets are deserted … it’s eery.”
The community is waiting for the cyclone to arrive in “full force” by Friday evening, he said.
The Denham evacuation centre took in three people on Thursday night seeking shelter. All Shark Bay Shire businesses and schools closed on Friday.
“Very destructive wind gusts” up to 250km/h were expected down the west coast to Coral Bay and Cape Cuvier, the BoM said.
The most likely track of Narelle was to the east of Perth on Saturday afternoon, most likely as a tropical low, Cherny said. She added that over Friday and Saturday combined, WA’s southwest including the Perth metro area could see between 50 and 100 millimetres of rain.
“This much rain around Perth is enough to lead to areas of flash flooding,” Cherny said. A flood watch stretches from Exmouth in the state’s north-west to Perth’s Swan River.
Carmen Gerrard, resident of Dawesville, an hour south of Perth, says she hadn’t experienced many effects as of Friday morning.
“It’s cloudy here at the moment, small thunderstorm yesterday afternoon, not even any wind … we are supposed to get rain over the weekend” she said. “It’s mostly going to effect those further up north.”
Narelle was forecast to move off the WA south coast into the Southern Ocean overnight on Saturday, with flooding effects and clean up efforts expected to last into next week.
Speaking about the storm’s impacts, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said on Friday morning that the federal government “stands ready to assist state and territory governments but also local government at this time”.
WA premier, Roger Cook, said on Friday morning that it would take time for assessments to determine the extent of damage.
The massive storm hit far north Queensland as a “high-end” category four cyclone last week, before reaching the Northern Territory as a category three storm last Saturday and then continuing all the way west to the Indian Ocean.
Cyclone Narelle’s early formation and intensification was likely fuelled by global heating, according to climate scientists, who have pointed to record ocean temperatures in the Coral Sea in the weeks preceding the storm.
