{"id":570746,"date":"2026-03-28T21:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T21:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/570746\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T21:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T21:37:10","slug":"no-one-has-had-a-dry-run-weather-warnings-for-storm-ravaged-wa-after-cyclone-narelle-downgraded-to-tropical-low-australia-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/570746\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018No one has had a dry run\u2019: weather warnings for storm-ravaged WA after Cyclone Narelle downgraded to tropical low | Australia weather"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zac Saber did not sleep a wink as ex-Tropical Cyclone Narelle battered the Western Australian coast on Friday night<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As fellow Exmouth locals took shelter in evacuation centres and homes, Saber spent the night listening to the sound of \u201csuper intense\u201d winds rattling his walls.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe windows looked like they were going to pop, there were crazy sounds coming from the door and roof,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had to find buckets \u2026 rain was coming through at a full-on horizontal direction, underneath windowsills.\u201d<\/p>\n

A damaged boat at the marina in Exmouth, where winds exceeded 250km\/h. Photograph: Zac SaberExmouth bore the brunt of the storm when it was at category four level.<\/p>\n

Exmouth, 1,250km north of Perth, bore the brunt of the storm when it was at category four level. Winds exceeding 250km\/h tore roofs from buildings and caused widespread flooding. In a dramatic scene on Friday, 50 people were forced to flee the town\u2019s primary evacuation centre after the building itself sustained wind damage.<\/p>\n

By Saturday morning, as the storm was downgraded to a tropical low and winds finally eased around 11am, Saber began hearing community reports of the destruction.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve heard of people losing roofs, and even a report of a dinghy in a living room,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Saber, the manager of the Minderoo Exmouth research lab, found his facility had escaped major structural damage \u2013 though there was \u201csome water.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one has had a dry run,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome businesses were smashed hard, the power\u2019s still off, apparently the IGA is in a bad way and the Ampol fuel station is damaged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Strong winds and heavy rain lashed the town of Onslow on\u00a0Friday. Photograph: Justin Hayes\/PR IMAGE<\/p>\n

The system continued to lose intensity as it swept south-east, bringing gusts of up to 100km\/h, heavy rainfall and flash flood warnings for the wheatbelt region and Perth.<\/p>\n

The system was expected to continue moving south-east from Geraldton before likely exiting the south coast later on Saturday, with conditions expected to ease into Sunday, the Bureau of Meteorology said.<\/p>\n

Gas projects hit<\/p>\n

The cyclone\u2019s impact extended to the state\u2019s energy infrastructure, with four major gas projects experiencing outages.<\/p>\n

Woodside confirmed a \u201cproduction interruption\u201d at its Karratha gas plant, the onshore processing hub for the North West Shelf project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson said production was expected to recommence once the company could safely mobilise its offshore workforce, and was meanwhile continuing at its Macedon and Pluto sites.<\/p>\n

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

Chevron\u2019s Gorgon facility on Barrow Island also experienced an outage on Thursday afternoon after one of its three LNG production trains was affected. The company was still working to restore production at its Wheatstone project as of Saturday, after an offshore platform was knocked offline at midday on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The ABC reported<\/a> that strong winds had also caused Santos\u2019 Varanus Island plant to trip. Guardian Australia contacted Santos for comment.<\/p>\n

A WA Department of Energy spokesperson said the state government was monitoring the situation and that gas supply remained stable.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

More rain on the way<\/p>\n

The BoM confirmed on Saturday morning at 5.45am local time that the system had a \u201cvery low\u201d chance of redeveloping, but warned that the danger was not over for inland and southern districts.<\/p>\n

Despite Narelle being downgraded, a \u201creally powerful weather system\u201d would continue to lash central and southern WA through Saturday night, said Angus Hines, a senior meteorologist at the bureau.<\/p>\n

The BoM forecast significant rainfalls for the Gascoyne, central west and the wheatbelt throughout Saturday. Hines said cumulative rainfall was likely to trigger flooding across eastern and central regions, with a further 30mm to 70mm expected on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could still see some strong wind gusts up to about 100km\/h,\u201d he said, \u201cdefinitely enough to cause some damage \u2026 a few roofs or fences, bring down branches and cause power outages.\u201d<\/p>\n

A dust storm was kicked up by ex-Tropical Cyclone Narelle in Carnarvon, Western Australia, on Friday. Photograph: Ian Smith\/PR IMAGE<\/p>\n

Emergency warnings were downgraded across the state by late Saturday morning. Isolated watch and act warnings remained in place for parts of Perth, the midwest and Gascoyne and west of Onslow to Coral Bay. Locals were warned that a possible threat remained to lives and homes, and were told to stay away from damaged buildings.<\/p>\n

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, praised the efforts of emergency workers on Saturday and said the federal government \u201cstands ready to assist\u201d with the recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur thoughts are with everyone in Western Australia<\/a> at the moment, but also those who are continuing to be impacted in the Northern Territory and Queensland,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Narelle had tracked south to Coral Bay and made landfall just south of the town before weakening to a category three system. It then passed east of Carnarvon on Friday afternoon, continuing to lose strength as it moved inland.<\/p>\n

Carnarvon\u2019s shire president, Eddie Smith, described a \u201cthick, pink dust storm\u201d that blanketed the town for two hours as wind gusts topped 100km\/h. Overnight, gusts reached 133km\/h at Carnarvon airport and 122km\/h at Gascoyne Junction, while widespread rainfall totals of 70 to 100mm were recorded across the Gascoyne region.<\/p>\n

Damage bill still to be tallied<\/p>\n

The Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) commissioner, Darren Klemm, said the damage was expected to be \u201csignificant\u201d and emergency services would continue working with local councils to assess what support they needed.<\/p>\n

The federal emergency management minister, Kristy McBain, told ABC on Saturday morning that roughly 2,000 homes remained without power.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do know the system is weakening, but there is still significant wind gusts and heavy rain that it is bringing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police and SES workers in Exmouth on Saturday. Photograph: Violeta Jahnel Brosig\/AAP<\/p>\n

Evacuation centres were open at Carnarvon PCYC, Shark Bay Recreation Centre, Activewest Stadium in Wonthella, Beechboro Community Hub and Ningaloo Function Centre in Exmouth.<\/p>\n

In Exmouth, well-known for its natural environment and ecotourism, Saber said worsening natural disasters are putting a \u201cspanner in the works\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the sort of thing that would become common from climate change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get cyclones through this area somewhat frequently, it\u2019s always been a reality, but as they become more regular and more intense, it has an impact on things like the Ningaloo reef and the community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zac Saber did not sleep a wink as ex-Tropical Cyclone Narelle battered the Western Australian coast on Friday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-570746","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\/570746","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=570746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}