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Residents in the tourist town of Exmouth are faced with a massive cleanup effort ahead, after bearing the brunt of one of the strongest weather systems the region has seen in decades.
Ex-Tropical Cyclone Narelle crossed the West Australian coast in Coral Bay on Friday afternoon as a category 3 system, bringing a deluge of rain and gale force winds.
Local conservation groups have urged the community to keep an eye out for injured wildlife, after witnessing “devastating scenes” along the Ningaloo coastline in the aftermath of the storm.
Balu Blue posted to Instagram on Saturday evening, showing video of “countless seabirds … many turtle hatchlings, fish, sea snakes, eels, crustaceans and so much more” washed up on shore.
“Nyinggulu coastline has been severely impacted by Cyclone Narelle. Today on the west side of the cape … [we saw] the impacts the cyclone had on our coastline and these are some of the devastating scenes we uncovered,” they wrote.
“Some species washed in you don’t see much while out in the water. Our heart is breaking for the beautiful reef and our wildlife.
“We helped what we could get back to the sea and [we have] taken in many animals that are now in care.”
The tourist town was cut off in every direction by road as 350 millimetres of rain hit from Friday evening, with wind gusts of up to 250 kilometres per hour.
Flights have also been cancelled with the airport significantly damaged.
Boats were tipped over and damaged, including trawlers which were just weeks from heading out for prawn season.
The State Emergency Service received 96 calls for help in the region – the majority from Exmouth, as the cyclone tore off roofs, uprooted trees, flooded homes and cut power.
“It is certainly one of the strongest systems we have seen for that area in recent decades,” Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Jessica Lingard said.
Exmouth resident Matt Carroll told 9News Perth that the damage was “pretty daunting just seeing everything turned upside down like that”.
“But when you see some of the homes that roofs ripped off and ceilings gone, you realise just how lucky you are,” he said.
Saturday night was the third without power for many in the town, but regional provider Horizon Power stated they had restored power to 144 customers by 6pm.
The majority of residents in Carnarvon were also reconnected, with just 44 homes left without power.
“Additional crews are on their way to support local crews to restore power to affected properties as soon as it is safe to do so,” they said in a statement.
“Due to the extent of damage on the ground, restoration times are currently unknown, and some areas may take an extended period of time to restore power.”
The outage map has temporarily been removed from the website due to the uncertainty.
Exmouth Shire President Matthew Niikkula said the town had suffered “extensive damage”, with many residents without running water.
“The airport has suffered catastrophic damage to the terminal, so we won’t be able to receive or send out regular passenger planes for a while. The runway itself has sustained major damage, which RAAF are working on trying to clear that and repair that as fast as possible in order to be able to get some support planes in,” he said.
“Everyone’s on emergency power right now, and we’re still cut off by road and by air except for helicopter at the moment.”
Niikkula said there were no injuries reported as a result of the storm, but damage to properties was “very extensive”.
Premier Roger Cook and emergency service personnel will provide a further update on the situation on Sunday morning.
More to come.
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Holly Thompson is a journalist with WAtoday, specialising in education and the environment.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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