{"id":551759,"date":"2026-03-20T01:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T01:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/551759\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T01:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T01:24:12","slug":"queensland-town-awaits-fury-as-cyclone-upgraded-to-category-five","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/551759\/","title":{"rendered":"Queensland town awaits fury as cyclone upgraded to category five"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/03\/18\/biggest-in-living-memory-monster-cyclone-set-to-hit-northern-australia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">biggest cyclones in recent times<\/a> is barrelling toward Australia&#8217;s coast as a maximum category five system.<\/p>\n<p>The monster storm was upgraded for the second time on Thursday morning, producing wind gusts up to 285km\/h as locals brace for impact in Far North Queensland.<\/p>\n<p>Cyclone Narelle is expected to make landfall on Friday morning near Coen, north of Cairns.<\/p>\n<p>After crossing Cape York, the storm was expected to lash the Northern Territory&#8217;s Top End before moving into Western Australia&#8217;s Kimberley coast.<\/p>\n<p>About 500 people will be evacuated from NT&#8217;s remote Gulf of Carpentaria community of Numbulwar in the coming days.<\/p>\n<p>The destructive system has picked up speed as it hurtles toward the far north and is currently travelling at 26km\/h.<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BOM_Qld\/status\/2034392323795177851\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><\/p>\n<p>The cyclone could be the biggest &#8220;in living memory&#8221;, according to Queensland Premier David Crisafulli.<\/p>\n<p>Narelle will be the first category five storm to hit the state since Cyclone Marcia devastated central Queensland in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This has the potential to be a very dangerous weather event,&#8221; Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Commonwealth stands ready to provide whatever assistance is required for both Queensland and for the Northern Territory.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the biggest cyclones in recent times is barrelling toward Australia&#8217;s coast as a maximum category five&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128,60316],"class_list":["post-551759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-weather-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551759","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=551759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}