\u201cWe will be ensuring there are supports available for people as they come out of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exmouth remains largely without power, water or communication services, he said, but crews were working to restore access.<\/p>\n
Klemm said he was hopeful road access to Exmouth would quickly be restored from the north.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really confident we\u2019ll get the road from the north open this afternoon which will give access to Exmouth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He told media he was aware of damage to buildings, service stations and Learmonth Airport in the coastal town, although the department was not aware of any injuries.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are aware of significant damage to the terminal out at Learmonth Airport which may make it difficult to use that for civil type flights \u2026 in the next few days,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, Klemm said the department was aware of significant damage to fruit growing plantations east of Carnarvon and a \u201cnumber\u201d of pastoral stations in the region.<\/p>\n
Gas production halted after damage<\/p>\n
Major Australian gas producers have halted operations after critical infrastructure was damaged by Severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle.<\/p>\n
Chevron and Woodside sustained damage at facilities in the cyclone\u2019s path as it moved towards the Pilbara and Gascoyne coast as a category four system on Thursday.<\/p>\n
A Woodside spokesman confirmed production had been interrupted by the cyclone at the Karratha gas plant, the onshore processing facility for the North West Shelf, but was still supplying gas from available capacity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWoodside is monitoring the progress and impact of Tropical Cyclone Narelle,\u201d a spokesman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cProduction at the Northwest Shelf Project is expected to recommence after Woodside is able to mobilise its workforce to its offshore facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chevron\u2019s Gorgon gas facility was battered by gale-force winds of about 159km\/h as the system swept across Barrow Island, around 140km west of Port Dampier and home to one of Australia\u2019s largest LNG resources on Friday.<\/p>\n
Wheatstone personnel were demobilised from the platform before the cyclone passed, but it was being operated remotely from Perth.<\/p>\n
A Chevron spokesman said they were working to restore production at the Gorgon and Wheatstone gas facilities following production outages.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout 12pm on Thursday, an outage occurred at the offshore Wheatstone Platform which is located about 225km off Western Australia\u2019s coast,\u201d a spokesman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the platform supplies feed gas to Wheatstone\u2019s onshore facilities near Onslow, Western Australia, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and domestic gas production has been suspended.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will resume full production at both facilities once it is safe to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle tore through Western Australia\u2019s Gascoyne region in the state\u2019s northwest as a category three system bringing destructive wind gusts in excess of 170km\/h and widespread heavy rainfall on Friday.<\/p>\n
Exmouth residents, about 1457km north of Perth, were forced to shelter inside their properties for hours on Friday as the cyclone bore down on the tourist town situated along the Coral Coast.<\/p>\n
Images from Exmouth show a huge storm surge push through a canal system in a residential area, flooding homes.<\/p>\n
The Water Corporation urged residents in Exmouth and Onslow to limit non-essential water use as crews worked to repair damaged infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Exmouth, residents may experience low water pressure, with the potential for intermittent supply disruptions overnight due to a power outage affecting the town\u2019s two borefields,\u201d the Department of Fire and Emergency Services said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Onslow, repairs are underway to damaged water mains that supply a large water storage tank, with the potential to interrupt supply.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain told ABC Weekend Breakfast there had been damage in Exmouth and Carnarvon, including an evacuation centre, but no injuries were reported.<\/p>\n
McBain said about 2000 homes were without power, properties had been damaged and roofs blown off, with impacts to operations at Woodside and Chevron gas plants in the Pilbara.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do know that it will de de-intensify today towards a category tand then a one, but there is still significant wind gusts and rain that it is bringing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is damage and we do have assessments currently taking place in Exmouth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Red dust hits part of Western Australia<\/p>\n
Similar scenes were experienced further south in Carnarvon, about 1120km north of Perth, with fears banana plantations would be wiped out by the cyclone.<\/p>\n
Banana growers in the region lost about 50% of their crops during Cyclone Mitchell and heatwaves in the recent months and were bracing for the worst.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the winds are as they are forecast \u2013 which at the moment is forecast to be 180-190km\/h \u2013 then we would unlikely to have any bananas left standing,\u201d Doriana Mangili told local media.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe trees, they don\u2019t have big root systems, so anything over 100km\/h will push bananas over and then you have to sort of start again.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless something miraculous happens \u2026 then we will probably have nothing left by [Saturday].\u201d<\/p>\n
Photos from the Carnarvon show red dust swirling through the air as winds tore through one of the state\u2019s agricultural regions.<\/p>\n
Virgin and Qantas cancelled dozens of flights to and from the state\u2019s northwest on Friday.<\/p>\n
Both airlines were closely monitoring the impact and associated weather conditions affecting large parts of Western Australia.<\/p>\n
A Qantas spokesman advised Geraldton Airport was closed on Saturday and one flight had been cancelled.<\/p>\n
Red dust blanketed Carnarvon and Shark Bay during Tropical Cyclone Narelle. Screenshot \/ Shark Bay Caravan Park<\/p>\n
A Virgin Australia spokesman confirmed their main line operations had not been impacted, but they were unable to operate flights to Onslow while the airport is closed.<\/p>\n
\u201cSafety is always our priority, and any decision to operate will be based on the latest meteorology advice,\u201d a spokesman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGuests are encouraged to check the status of their flight via the Virgin Australia app or our flight status page before travelling to the airport.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emergency warnings remained in place with people in the vicinity of Coral Bay, the Overlander Roadhouse on the North West Coastal Highway, Binnu and Mullewa warned there was still a threat to their lives and homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cShelter indoors now. It is too late to leave,\u201d the warning read.<\/p>\n
The Department of Fire and Emergency Services advised the cyclone was downgraded to an ex-tropical cyclone at about 5.45am local time on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The weather system was sitting over the Gascoyne region northeast of Dongara and was weakening as it moved 41km\/h in a south-southeast direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is expected to continue tracking quickly south-southeast over land while weakening further during today. Impacts will extend into the Central West, before spreading further inland and south across the South West Land Division,\u201d a spokesman said.<\/p>\n
Multiple roads have been closed in the state\u2019s northwest and motorists have been asked to avoid the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cConditions remain challenging; however, crews are working to complete repairs as quickly and safely as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe will be ensuring there are supports available for people as they come out of this.\u201d Exmouth remains…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[2840,24812,13982,33959,22510,31406,116990,15974,273,140884,5504,305,180842,111,139,44182,69,91131,147,1321,2848,190308,6211,22974,19030,1803,6736,3457,23939,190307],"class_list":{"0":"post-361414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-across","9":"tag-australias","10":"tag-continues","11":"tag-cyclone","12":"tag-damage","13":"tag-direction","14":"tag-downgraded","15":"tag-emergency","16":"tag-environment","17":"tag-extropical","18":"tag-following","19":"tag-have","20":"tag-narelle","21":"tag-new-zealand","22":"tag-newzealand","23":"tag-northwest","24":"tag-nz","25":"tag-provided","26":"tag-science","27":"tag-services","28":"tag-severe","29":"tag-southeasterly","30":"tag-system","31":"tag-track","32":"tag-tropical","33":"tag-update","34":"tag-was","35":"tag-western","36":"tag-widespread","37":"tag-wrought"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}