{"id":551785,"date":"2026-03-20T01:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T01:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/551785\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T01:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T01:43:09","slug":"tropical-storm-receives-category-4-downgrade-lockhart-river-portland-roads-coen-port-stewart-emergency-warnings-issued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/551785\/","title":{"rendered":"Tropical storm receives category 4 downgrade; Lockhart River, Portland Roads, Coen, Port Stewart emergency warnings issued"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>McConnell said the resort was full, after guests were unable to get on extra flights that were scheduled yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve got 40-odd people in here that couldn\u2019t be put on flights to get out so they\u2019re having to hunker down and stay here until Sunday,\u201d he said, adding that the resort\u2019s restaurant, a category 3 shelter, would provide safety.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously yesterday they were a bit anxious, you know, they all thought they were going home &#8230; they were a little anxious to start with but they\u2019ve settled down this morning and realised the reality is they\u2019re here until Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe roads are all closed, so there\u2019s no other way out apart from flying.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McConnell, who came from Florida, where he experienced multiple hurricanes in a short period, said the Weipa community was prepared and waiting for the system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s not much you can do, just wait for it to turn up, make sure everyone\u2019s safe, and just educate all your staff and your guests as to what\u2019s needed and keep everyone accounted for,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McConnell said the resort was full, after guests were unable to get on extra flights that were scheduled&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-551785","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\/551785","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=551785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}