Australia Weather News
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Communities across Western Australia's Pilbaraare picking up the pieces in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Narelle, which caused significant damage to Exmouth and flooding in Onslow.
Hundreds of homes remain without power, as the category two system continues to cause wild weather in the Gascoyne and Midwest.
Cyclone Narelle is currently 135 kilometres east southeast of Denham and "moving quickly" at 36 kilometres per hour.
The Bureau of Metereology (BOM) said the cyclone would likely maintain its category two strength into Saturday morning, having passed Exmouth as a category four system on Friday.
Destructive wind gusts up to 250km/h were recorded as Cyclone Narelle bore down on the tourist town, about 1,200 kilometres north of Perth.
The system was later downgraded to a category three, as it made landfall between Coral Bay and and Cape Cuvier.
[cyclone tracker link]Meteoreologist Rosa Hoff said Cyclone Narelle would now begin tracking further south-east, "quite close" to Morowa in the state's Midwest.
"At this stage it's going to be close to sunrise as it goes past. It will be directly north of Morawa at 5am," she said.
"We will see it go through that transition as it continues to weaken, and it will weaken at a more rapid pace as it gets further away from the tropical area."
The weather bureau said it expected Cyclone Narelle to deteriorate into a tropical low by midday, today.
'Pretty full on'
As Cyclone Narelle travelled down the coast, the system left significant damage to housing and infrastructure.
Residents described the moment roofs were ripped off across Exmouth, boats sunk in the marina and flooding filled the streets.
Remote locum doctor, Jo Crookes, arrived in Exmouth 10 days ago for work.
The Canberra resident described seeing fallen trees and fences, shredded shade-cloths and hearing loud bangs, as she sheltered in a wardrobe.
"It was a little scary. The water was flooding in under the sliding doors upstairs and it was leaking through some of the light fitting," Ms Crookes said.
"A big panel on the outside balcony got blown off and lots of guttering came down,
"It was pretty full on."
Everything 'dead still, quiet'
Paul Richardson said he caught the eye of the storm at Gnaraloo Station, sitting just south of where Cyclone Narelle crossed the Gascoyne coast.
He said the wind stopped for almost 30 minutes, as the cyclone approached.
"It just goes dead still... quiet," Mr Richardson said.
"Once you feel the wind coming back again, you've got about five minutes and it is absolutely full bore."
Mr Richardson said his goats took advantage of the easing conditions, before he realised what was happening.
"I think they're smarter than us, they knew the eye was coming," he said.
"As soon as it started to get calm, they all got up and walked across the front to hide somewhere else. I was actually considering going with them at one stage."
He said the cyclone significantly damaged the station, ripping up water tanks and part of the homestead's roof.
ABC