Australia Weather News

Residents in coastal communities in parts of Western Australia's north are reporting widespread damage and flooding as severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle barrels along the Pilbara coast, heading south.

The category four cyclone is passing across the North West Cape between the tourist hotspots of Exmouth and Coral Bay, packing wind gusts of up to 250 kilometres per hour.

A cyclone emergency warning is current across a large swathe of Pilbara coast, from south of Mardie and Onslow, through to Coral Bay, and including the Barrow and Montebello Islands.

People in the area have been urged to shelter indoors as the system moves south, with the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) warning of an immediate threat to lives and homes.

In the town of Exmouth, there are reports of widespread damage, including roofs being ripped off, while the main street on Onslow has reportedly been inundated.

Exmouth Shire President Matthew Niikkula said roofs had been torn from houses.

"Everyone in town's house would be at least flooded with water, if not heavily damaged," he said.

Exmouth's evacuation centre, where up to 40 people are believed to have sheltered overnight, reportedly lost part of its roof.

Local resident Karley Lillycrapp described waiting out the cyclone at a friend's house with her two young children. 

"It's pretty scary," she said.

"Even though there are roller shutters on every window, you can still hear things from outside flying into the windows.

"I can hear things outside just flying around, and there's actually banging on the roof as well."

Onslow resort operator Drew Norrish said videos sent from his staff showed the main street in town flooded.

"It's pretty wild … The main street, which runs through the middle of town, is basically a river, so that's pretty interesting to see," he said.

Yardie Homestead manager Les Graham said he and his wife slept in the "solidly built" kitchen, but woke at 4am to see branches, trees and fence panels scattered around the property, which is 32 kilometres from Exmouth.

"Hasn't been a great deal of damage to infrastructure from what we can see, but haven't had a decent look because it's howling again," he said.

Flights cancelled, schools shut

Cyclone Narelle formed off Queensland more than a week ago before sweeping across northern Australia.

It is expected to make landfall around lunchtime near Coral Bay and weaken as it tracks south.

While Perth was unlikely to be directly impacted, it could see heavy rainfall of up to 100 millimetres in 24 hours, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

Flights to the Pilbara have been cancelled; around 50 schools are closed, as are national parks and some major highways. Late yesterday, oil and gas giant Chevron said it was experiencing outages at its flagship gas facilities, Gorgon and Wheatstone.

The company said LNG and domestic gas production at Wheatstone near Onslow had been suspended, while one of its three LNG production trains at Gorgon on Barrow Island had also been shut down.

"We will resume full production at both facilities once it is safe to do so," a spokesman said.

Carnarvon still calm

Carnarvon Shire President Eddie Smith said on Friday morning there was only a light breeze in the town.

He said the whole community had been busy preparing for Cyclone Narelle, which is expected to reach the area later today.

"We've had to build a levee bank near the portion of South Carnarvon because they're forecasting a 2.5 metre storm surge at high tide," he said.

Mr Smith urged everyone to stay inside until the system passed.