{"id":380225,"date":"2025-12-30T10:39:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T10:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/380225\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T10:39:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T10:39:12","slug":"severe-tropical-cyclone-hayley-crosses-western-australias-kimberley-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/380225\/","title":{"rendered":"Severe Tropical Cyclone Hayley crosses Western Australia’s Kimberley coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Severe Tropical Cyclone Hayley has crossed Western Australia’s Kimberley coast as a category three system, bringing destructive winds and heavy rainfall to the state’s north.<\/p>\n

The eye of the cyclone crossed the tip of the Dampier Peninsula coastline, north of Broome, around 5pm (WST) on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) says there are sustained winds of 120 kilometres per hour near the cyclone’s centre, with wind gusts of up to 165km\/h.<\/p>\n

A warning zone has been established north of Broome to Kuri Bay, which includes the Dampier Peninsula and the town of Derby.<\/p>\n

Heavy rainfall is also expected, with the possibility of flash flooding in the next 24 hours.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Broome Cape Leveque Road closed as Tropical Cyclone Hayley neared. (ABC News: Andrew Seabourne)<\/p>\n

Cyclone Hayley is expected to weaken in intensity as it heads east over land and could drop to tropical low status as early as Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

BOM WA state manager James Ashley said the system had sped up from 12km\/h to 23km\/h in the final hours before crossing the coast.<\/p>\n

“You can clearly see on the radar it has crossed south of the community of Djarindjin,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I imagine that area is getting absolutely pummelled by wind and rain.”Debris warnings<\/p>\n

Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) acting Kimberley superintendent Todd Pender said loose debris was a key concern for residents in the emergency warning zone.<\/p>\n

“As those gale force winds intensify to damaging and then also to destructive, they have the propensity to pick up the debris and fly it around the community,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Men<\/p>\n

Emergency service crews were bolstered ahead of the cyclone. (ABC Kimberley: Rachel Jackson)<\/p>\n

“There is a very high potential for damage. We are going to see structures damaged by this event, unfortunately.”<\/p>\n

Mr Pender said coastal communities could experience destructive winds.<\/p>\n

“The category three circumstances, that environment, is probably going to last right up until it gets to the coast,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

Emergency services were flown in to Broome to help with the cyclone. (ABC Kimberley: Rachel Jackson)<\/p>\n

But Mr Pender assured the community that enough people were in place to support during the cyclone, including operational and search and rescue teams that had flown into Broome.<\/p>\n

He said a number of State Emergency Services volunteers had also arrived to assist with recovery efforts.<\/p>\n

Mr Pender added that a “significant” number of people had evacuated from Dampier Peninsula communities to Broome.<\/p>\n

Community evacuates<\/p>\n

Some of the evacuees included elders from the Djarindjin community.<\/p>\n

Laurel Angus said it had been raining heavily in the community before they left on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

“We had to move out. We wouldn’t feel safe there with the cyclone,” she said.\"An<\/p>\n

Laurel Angus was evacuated ahead of the cyclone. (ABC Kimberley: Rachel Jackson)<\/p>\n

She said it was much safer for older people to be in Broome.<\/p>\n

Community member Erica Kyle drove the bus of elders and described the journey as “slow” and “wet”.<\/p>\n

“They were a bit upset they had to leave their houses, but they know it’s the right thing,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Erica Kyle drove a minibus of elders from the Djarindjin community to Broome. (ABC Kimberley: Rachel Jackson)<\/p>\n

“They need shelter, somewhere safe during the cyclone.”<\/p>\n

Ms Kyle said she would stay in Broome with her young children and look after the elders until the skies clear.<\/p>\n

An emergency evacuation centre has been set up at the Broome Recreation and Aquatic Centre.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Severe Tropical Cyclone Hayley has crossed Western Australia’s Kimberley coast as a category three system, bringing destructive winds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,204717,101808,172851,204719,150595,171419,44,204716,45,204718],"class_list":["post-380225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-broome-cyclone","tag-broome-news","tag-category-three","tag-dampier-peninsula","tag-destructive-winds","tag-kimberley-coast","tag-news","tag-tropical-cyclone-hayley","tag-wa-news","tag-western-australia-cyclone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}