Australia Weather News
The Department of Fire and Emergency Services WA is preparing for bushfire season. (August 2025) (good generic) (ABC News: Mya Kordic)
Communities across Western Australia's Pilbaraare picking up the pieces in the wake of ex-Tropical Cyclone Narelle, with the tourist town of Exmouth bearing the brunt of the category four system.
Exmouth shire president MatthewNikkula said residents had woken up this morning to a "war zone", with power out across the town, roofs ripped from buildings and trees uprooted.
The town's airport is understood to have sustained significant damage.
More than 2,000 homes remain without power in Exmouth, Carnarvon and Mullewa, as the former cyclone, which was downgraded to a tropical low shortly before 6am, local time, today, continues to cause wild weather in the Mid West and South West.
However, despite residents being forced to take shelter overnight, Kalbarri and Geraldton on the Mid West coast, appear to have escaped unscathed.
The low is bringing stormy conditions across a huge swathe of the state, from the Mid West, through to the Goldfields and Great Southern.
The system passed over Exmouth as a category four yesterday, bringing destructive wind gusts up to 250km/h and ripping roofs from buildings all over the town.
Mr Niikkula described widespread destruction in the town, about 1,200 kilometres north of Perth, which is the gateway to the Ningaloo Reef and boasts significant tourism and fishing industries.
"There is destruction — it doesn't matter where you look — around the place," he said.
"We're in for a long slog to get it back together.
"There are power lines down around the place still everywhere, there is a lot of debris still on the road."
Water supplies remain limited, and the Water Corporation has advised Exmouth and Onslow residents to avoid non-essential water while damaged infrastructure is fixed.
Mr Niikkula said teams were also busy clearing the Learmonth airport runway, which endured "severe damage".
[cyclone tracker link]National parks across the region remain closed, including Ningaloo Marine Park and Cape Range National Park, and a new evacuation centre has opened at the Ningaloo Function Centre, after the Exmouth evacuation centre had part of its roof ripped off in the early hours yesterday.
Morawa Shire President Karen Chappel said the community was well prepared, but anxious after a cyclone in previous years hit the Mid West community much harder than expected.
'Pretty full on'
As Cyclone Narelle tore down the iron-ore-rich Pilbara coast and across the Gascoyne food bowl region yesterday, it left a trail of damage to housing and infrastructure.
The state's biggest oil and gas companies were forced to halt LNG production at many of their sites.
Energy giants Santos, Chevron, and Woodside all confirmed impacts to critical infrastructure.
Meanwhile, residents described the moments 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."
'Pretty devastated' in Exmouth
Long-time Exmouth resident Bluey Timewell said nine solar panels from his roof blew off during the cyclone, causing multiple water leaks.
Mr Timewell's property is one of the 2,000 homes still without power around Carnarvon and Exmouth.
"There's a lot of people in town who are pretty devastated today with the damage that's happened to their places, so we are going to rally around today and try help everyone out," he said.
Paul Richardson said he caught the eye of the storm at Gnaraloo Station, just south of where Cyclone Narelle crossed the Gascoyne coast.
"It just goes dead still, quiet," he said.
"Once you feel the wind coming back again, you've got about five minutes and it is absolutely full bore."
He said the cyclone significantly damaged the station, ripping up water tanks and part of the homestead's roof.
ABC