{"id":551609,"date":"2026-03-19T23:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T23:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/551609\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T23:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T23:57:08","slug":"eerily-silent-cape-york-residents-batten-down-the-hatches-ahead-of-tropical-cyclone-narelles-arrival-tropical-cyclone-narelle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/551609\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Eerily silent\u2019: Cape York residents batten down the hatches ahead of Tropical Cyclone Narelle\u2019s arrival | Tropical Cyclone Narelle"},"content":{"rendered":"

In some ways, it seemed a pleasant, wet season morning in the remote Aboriginal community of Coen in tropical far north Queensland<\/a> on Thursday \u2013 and Sara Watkins was preparing for a sausage sizzle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a day that you\u2019d spend going fishing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Instead Watkins \u2013 who runs one of two grocery and fuel shops in town, and is also a mechanic \u2013 was busy pulling down signs, sandbagging doors, selling gas stoves and canned food and preparing to communicate via UHF radio. She and the few hundred residents of the Cape York town were hunkering down for a cyclone they were told could be the worst in living memory for communities in the firing line.<\/p>\n

And when Severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle<\/a> eventually passes, Coen could face weeks without power, mobile reception or access to the outside world.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a whole bunch of hotdog rolls and sausages,\u201d she says. \u201cSo [when] it\u2019s safe, we\u2019ll do a sausage sizzle at the shop.\u201d<\/p>\n

By midday, a gentle breeze blew down the streets of this landlocked town of about 330 people not far from the east coast of the finger of land at the tip of Queensland that points towards Papua New Guinea.<\/p>\n

But, about 500km offshore, Narelle had officially intensified into a category five storm \u2013 the highest category available \u2013 and was hurtling towards the coast, forecast to hit the next morning.<\/p>\n

Its projected path: smack bang over Coen.<\/a><\/p>\n

Which made it an anxious morning for Coen Regional Aboriginal Corporation general manager, Lucretia Huen.<\/p>\n

The town\u2019s population is typically transient in the wet season, with some heading to the city of Cairns, more than 400km south, or to see family in other Aboriginal communities, such as Hope Vale or Yarrabah.<\/p>\n

The small town of Coen is preparing for Cyclone Narelle. Queensland. Photograph: Coen Regional Aboriginal Corporation<\/p>\n

Huen was in Brisbane, worried about her family and community far away in the north.<\/p>\n

Coen has no purpose-built cyclone shelter, and some of the buildings are older, not necessarily built to modern cyclone standards. Huen was checking in for updates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say it\u2019s very calm and still,\u201d she said. \u201cVery eerie. It\u2019s eerily silent. They can\u2019t hear birds. We anticipate that this is the calm before the storm.\u201d<\/p>\n

A three-hour drive north-east of Coen, more than 700 people were hunkering down in the remote Aboriginal community of Lockhart River.<\/p>\n

The town is no stranger to cyclones. In March 2019, Tropical Cyclone Trevor, a category four system, caused four hours of destructive damage, with peak gusts of 137km\/h hitting the town.<\/p>\n

The Lockhart River mayor, Wayne Butcher, told Guardian Australia that the community has learned from the past, and have been on the front foot since Wednesday morning, when they were informed that a potential category five system cyclone was headed their way.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately we\u2019ve had plenty of practice over the years with cyclones, but the community is in a good position, well, I guess as best as it can be given the circumstances,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sara Watkins and Stephen Ramsay run one of two fuel and grocery shops in Coen, Queensland. Photograph: Sara Watkins and Stephen Ramsay<\/p>\n

\u201cThe debris is our main concern because buildings and houses can withstand the wind but they can\u2019t withstand any debris smashing into it during such an event.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re getting all of the community residents to place all of their loose items or debris out on the footpath and then the council team is going around with a truck and loading it all up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to make sure that everyone stays indoors, because the worst part is we\u2019ve got overhead power lines and we\u2019ll most likely get a few that will go down which always happens in the wet season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Coen, Lockhart River does not have a purpose-built cyclone shelter to keep the community safe. Butcher said many of the town\u2019s residents lived in tin housing, while the others had concrete homes.<\/p>\n

Residents in Coen spent Thursday pulling down signs and securing items ahead of Tropical Cyclone Narelle\u2019s expected arrival early on Friday morning. Photograph: Sara Watkins and Stephen Ramsay<\/p>\n

He said the council was working with the community to ensure people were safely sheltered, and that locals were opening their doors for \u201canyone in community\u201d who needed it, until the damage can be assessed in the morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll just wait for the weather now and see what mother nature brings us\u201d.<\/p>\n

Beyond the forecast eye of the storm, hundreds of kilometres of coastal Queensland were preparing for the worst it could bring.<\/p>\n

In Cooktown, more than 250km south-east of Coen, as the wind blows, Coast Guard deputy commander Nick Davidson was coordinating the harbour\u2019s evacuation.<\/p>\n

Thursday morning was the last window for boats to enter the tidal creeks that served as designated safe havens.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then you scratch your head and work out whether you are prepared to stay with the boat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOr whether you are going to have to jump in a tender and head back to town and find a nice solid house to hide in \u2013 which is always my preferred option\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In some ways, it seemed a pleasant, wet season morning in the remote Aboriginal community of Coen in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-551609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551609","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=551609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}