Residents in Western Australia’s Gascoyne continue to shelter indoors as Tropical Cyclone Mitchell skirts off the coast of Carnarvon, while others welcome the extra rainfall.
The category one system has been hugging the Pilbara coastline and travelling south since Friday.
Travelling parallel to shore, TC Mitchell is tracking south of Carnarvon and was expected to make landfall near Shark Bay overnight or early on Tuesday morning.
Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) forecaster Caroline Crowe said rain and winds had started to pick up across the world heritage listed area, located about 800 kilometres north of Perth.
“The Shark Bay area will see the worst conditions over the next three to six hours,” she said.
Ms Crowe said the system would dissipate into a tropical low, once it made landfall.
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“As Tropical Cyclone Mitchell continues to move southwards and crosses the coast, it will begin to weaken over land,” she said.
“We could still see some damaging wind gusts with peak gusts up to 100km/h.”
As the system weakens, BoM have warned of abnormally high tides in the southern parts of Shark Bay, and possible flash flooding in surrounding areas.Â
“It will bring potentially heavy rainfall that could lead to some flash flooding to parts of the Gascoyne, Central West and in the Central Wheatbelt on Tuesday,” Ms Crowe said.
The forecaster said affected areas may include Geraldton, Kalbarri, Merredin, Moora, Mount Magnet and Dalwallinu.
Tropical Cyclone Mitchell is expected to cross the coast on Monday night or early Tuesday morning. (Supplied: Bureau of Meteorology)
An evacuation centre remains open at the Shark Bay Recreation Centre, while the Carnarvon PCYC is now closed.
A number of schools will reopen in the Pilbara, however several schools in Shark Bay will be closed to all staff and students on Tuesday.Â
No major damage
As of 10pm AWST on Monday, Department of Fire and Emergency Services Incident Controller Will Blackshaw said there were no reports of major damage in Carnarvon or Coral Bay.
“We’re hoping that in the morning when people get up and have a look around, we won’t see too much more damage,” Mr Blackshaw said.
“But certainly, it’s looking better than not at the moment.”
DFES Incident Controller Will Blackshaw said there had been no reports of “major damage” as Cyclone Mitchell passed Carnarvon. (Supplied: Sophia Alston)
Mr Blackshaw said the impacts of Cyclone Mitchell were still being felt in Shark Bay, with rainfall totals surpassing 80 millimetres since 9am Monday.
“I’m just getting reports in now of approximately 200mm of rain in Monkey Mia and about 80mm in Denham,” he said.
“[There was also a] little bit of water ingress into some properties there,
Mr Blackshaw said emergency crews would continue to monitor any potential damage in Shark Bay.
“We do a lot of preparatory work before these events and that doesn’t stop,” he said.
“We’re still busy making the next plans of how we’ll get resources into different areas if we need.”
Wild weather
Carnarvon resident and ABC reporter Rachel Hagan said the weather had been relatively calm until heavy rain and wind began in the early afternoon.
“Things have started to pick up now — quite a few bangs outside which have made me jump but probably nothing like we’re about to experience,” she said.
Gascoyne residents have prepared for heaving rain and wind from TC Mitchell. (ABC News: Macey Turner)
Ms Hagan said the town seemed relatively prepared to weather the category one system.
“There was still water left [in stores], but a lot of water was gone,” she said.
“The thing that surprised me most is just how easygoing everyone seems to be about it.”
Carnarvon is experiencing strong winds as TC Mitchell gets closer to the Gascoyne town. (ABC Pilbara: Rachel Hagan)
Ms Hagan said local produce growers were excited by the prospect of some much-needed rain.
“Our growers have been hit by a heatwave … so the rain will be welcomed but hopefully the wind doesn’t do too much damage,” she said.
Rainfall welcomed
In the West Pilbara, Yalleen Station recorded 95 millimetres of rain brought by Cyclone Mitchell.
Dampier in WA’s north saw significant rainfall after the cyclone. (ABC News: Kelsey Reid)
Pastoralist Michael Percy said the downpour broke a three-year dry spell at the station.
“These sort of systems are what we all look out for, because they bring that sort of general rain that’s over the wide area, which is what we really need,” he said.
“We’ve had some really useful rain, which we were starting to worry we weren’t going to get.
Like many stations around the West Pilbara region, Yalleen has recorded several years of below-average rainfall.
For pastoralists in this region, cyclones can be good news if they result in much-needed water.
Miaree Pool near Karratha received a welcome downpour as TC Mitchell passed the Pilbara coast. (Supplied: Simon Overton)
Mr Percy said the rain on the station over the weekend would make a “huge difference”.
“It definitely changes our outlook entirely,” he said.
“But unfortunately, there’s a lot of people that will have missed out on this.”
Liam Forrester at Winning Station, about 220 kilometres north of Carnarvon, said he was forecast to receive a deluge of up to 80mm of rain from about 4am Monday.
Pastoralists at Winning Station strapped down the roof of the 1913 homestead in preparation for TC Mitchell. (Supplied: Liam Forrester)
But he only recorded between 15 and 20mm.
“We’re extremely grateful … but it is hard not to be a little bit disappointed with how dry it is,” he said.
“We were hoping to break the drought here, but we look forward to the next one.”
Cyclone passes Exmouth and Onslow
Tropical Cyclone Mitchell did reach category three strength on Saturday before it weakened to a two system on Sunday.
Roads were closed in Onlsow following TC Mitchell. (ABC News: Mietta Adams)
It was further downgraded to a category one strength on Monday.
Karratha saw wind gusts of 100km/h when it passed the Pilbara coastline.
Some residents in Exmouth have also had no power since Sunday night.
Before, during and after a disaster, find the information you need at ABC Emergency.
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