{"id":568207,"date":"2026-03-27T17:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T17:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/568207\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T17:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T17:18:15","slug":"cyclone-narelle-hammers-wa-towns-as-category-2-system-tracks-south-placing-geraldton-under-emergency-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/568207\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyclone Narelle hammers WA towns as category 2 system tracks south, placing Geraldton under emergency warning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cyclone Narelle\u2019s wrecking spree through three States and Territories is set to leave its final mark on WA on Saturday as towns and communities start to deal with the damage left in its ferocious wake.<\/p>\n

The cyclone cut a swath of destruction in the North West on Friday, severing power to thousands of properties, flooding homes, ripping roofs off buildings and tearing up trees.<\/p>\n

As it barrelled down the coast before cutting inland, it forced the North West Shelf offline, adding to disruptions at other LNG projects \u2014 in total, halting three-quarters of WA\u2019s gas production and more than 8 per cent of the world\u2019s output.<\/p>\n

With Queensland and the Northern Territory still cleaning up from Narelle\u2019s destructive tour de force, Australia will finally say farewell \u2014 or good riddance \u2014 to the big blow as what is left of dissipated Narelle exits into the Southern Ocean, west of Esperance.<\/p>\n

The system ceased to be cyclone-strength on Friday night, but shaken towns and communities in the North West were in recovery mode and face costly clean-ups after copping the full force of Narelle\u2019s fury.<\/p>\n

It was a severe category four tropical cyclone up until around midday when it calmed slightly to a category three. It was downgraded to category two just before 5pm.<\/p>\n

About 8pm DFES issued an emergency warning advising residents south of Binnu to Greenough to \u2018shelter indoors now.\u2019<\/p>\n

The most severe impacts were felt along the Pilbara and northern Gascoyne coasts that were lashed by intense winds of up to 260km an hour.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Exmouth and its surrounds were significantly impacted.<\/p>\n

Roofs were blown off homes and trees were uprooted. An evacuation centre in the town with 40 residents bunkering down had roof sheets ripped off.<\/p>\n

Nearby, flooding was so severe properties were semi-submerged. Since midnight Thursday, 344.8mm of rain had fallen there.<\/p>\n

More than 1500 properties in the area were without power.<\/p>\n

A weather radar station near Learmonth, which provides vital storm tracking data, was knocked out.<\/p>\n

Exmouth local Leith Holtzman said it felt like a \u201cdinosaur\u201d was outside his house, roaring to get in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like it\u2019s trying to tear into (my) house,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He tried to get under his bed.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom 4am to 6am it was horrific,\u201d he said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t fit under the bed, but had about half my body under the bed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t slept. I experienced Cyclone Owen but this is another level.\u201d<\/p>\n

The West was in touch with a large group sheltering together for 20 hours in a recreation room just outside of Exmouth.<\/p>\n

Amanda Kailis said a peep hole was their only window to see what was happening outside.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just been a very long day and a long night,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had gusts up to 190km\/h . . . we haven\u2019t left the room so I can\u2019t tell you what the damage is.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got 22 people here and two dogs. Morale has been high because we have provisions. I think we caught the the tail of the eye (of the cyclone).\u201d<\/p>\n

Ningaloo Caravan Park general manager Rachel Wells said she\u2019d been through cyclones before, but this was \u201cnext level\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking out the window and there are trees down and roofs are off,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are exhausted and shattered.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"YardieCamera IconYardie Homestead Credit: Les Graham\/Les Graham<\/p>\n

Bullara Station Stay, between Exmouth and Coral Bay, suffered significant damage, owner Edwina Shallcross told The West.<\/p>\n

The 250,000-acre working cattle station is a popular, award-winning tourism destination that was recently a filming location on Home and Away was hit at 1am.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been battering us for around 10 hours now,\u201d Ms Shallcross said. \u201cHalf of our homestead roof has been ripped off so we\u2019re currently sheltering in the kitchen area, where we expect to remain for the next couple of hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to know exactly what the full extent of the damage will be, as we can\u2019t go outside to walk around the station yet. But looking out the windows we\u2019re seeing giant pieces of tin and wood resting on the ground so we know that\u2019s been ripped off somewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the gum leaves have been stripped from the gum trees, they look strange and naked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conditions in Exmouth eased around 3pm, with residents venturing outside to see trees, fences and powerlines down amid other debris. Carnarvon residents, hit by wind gusts up to 170 km\/h were warned that severe impacts remained possible last night.<\/p>\n

Shark Bay, Kalbarri and Geraldton residents were bracing for Narelle\u2019s onslaught last night, albeit a category two cyclone with wind gusts of up to 125km\/h.<\/p>\n

There were no reports of serious injuries so far.<\/p>\n

Premier Roger Cook had earlier in the day described Narelle\u2019s destructive power as a \u201cvery confronting situation\u201d, while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Federal Government was ready to assist if needed and urged people in impacted communities to \u201clook after each other\u201d.<\/p>\n

At 4pm, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services said there had been 42 calls for assistance in the Pilbara and 16 in the Mid West.<\/p>\n

\"RoofCamera IconRoof panels been ripped off a house in Exmouth by Tropical Cyclone Narelle on Friday. Credit: Brock Keymer\/supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we get a clearer picture of the extent of the damage, we\u2019ll continue to work with the local governments and communities in the region to determine what sort of support they need for the ongoing impacts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Carnarvon\u2019s banana growers feared what was left of their crops from the recent cyclone Mitchell would likely be wiped out by Narelle.<\/p>\n

Doriana Mangili, banana grower and business manager for Sweeter, said they would need a miracle to avert a disaster.<\/p>\n

Karratha\u2019s Mayor Daniel Scott said the cyclone had skirted past the town, but he was unhappy with a new warning system there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe escaped the fury of it really . . . (but) it seems to me, that there\u2019s no systematic approach to making a decision for each warning level,\u201d he said. \u201cWe probably should have been on red alert . . . Dampier went on red alert. Dampier is only 20 kilometres away from Karratha.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karratha was far from unscathed with residents posing phots of damaged roads.<\/p>\n

The cyclone made landfall just before 2pm, crossing the coast 55km south of Coral Bay as a category three system.<\/p>\n

\"KarrathaCamera IconKarratha Back Beach Boat Ramp is closed due to damage from Narelle. Credit: City of Karratha\/City of Karratha<\/p>\n

Although Narelle was continuing to weaken, the Bureau of Meteorology warned of \u201cvery severe impacts\u201d from destructive winds and heavy rain across an area extending as far south as Jurien Bay.<\/p>\n

Beyond Dongara it was expected to weaken further to category one and eventually drop below a tropical cyclone strength on the rest of its journey south.<\/p>\n

Perth dodged Narelle\u2019s bullet but the metro area will still experience a lot of rain, just not the record amounts that would have fallen had the cyclone\u2019s path not moved inland. Around 30mm fell in Perth on Friday with more than 40mm falling in areas including Swanbourne and Bickley. About 20\u201340mm is forecast on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Department of Communities last night set up an evacuation centre at Swan Active in Beechboro, as a secondary evacuation centre for people who are unable to attend the Geraldton Evacuation Centre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cyclone Narelle\u2019s wrecking spree through three States and Territories is set to leave its final mark on WA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44,1192],"class_list":["post-568207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568207","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=568207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}