A massive clean-up is underway along Western Australia’s coast after ex-Tropical Cyclone Narelle wreaked havoc over the weekend, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.
Exmouth in the state’s North West Cape bore the brunt of the powerful system, which first crossed the coast in Queensland more than a week earlier.
The popular holiday town, located 1,250 kilometres north of Perth, remains largely isolated, completely cut off from water supplies and power after its main road closed due to flooding.
Narelle, which was a category-four system at its peak, blew wind gusts of up to 250km/h and dumped a year’s worth of rain on the town on Friday.
Roofs were torn off buildings, trees were torn out of the ground, homes were flooded and 50 people had to abandon a local evacuation centre when it sustained wind damage.
Exmouth Airport also sustained extensive damage.
Shire president Matthew Nikkula said the town ‘looked like a war zone’.
‘There is no current plan to get in and out,’ he said.
Cyclone Narelle destroyed homes and buildings in the tourist town of Exmouth, located 1,250 kilometres north of Perth
Narelle caused widespread damage across Exmouth as it moved down the WA coast
‘Unfortunately air travel is ceased because of the damage to the runways and the terminals and we have no way of landing a plane or unloading or reloading it.’
Local resident Craig Kitson counts himself as one of the lucky ones, despite spending the night under a leaking roof.
‘It was definitely a harrowing night there for a lot of people’ he told AAP, adding some homes had been completely destroyed.
‘Some people’s lives have been drastically changed.
‘There’s pretty much devastation everywhere you look.’
Authorities and the regional energy provider have been working to restore power to customers in Exmouth and nearby Carnarvon still experiencing outages, with additional workers called out to support local crews on Sunday.
Work is also underway to repair damaged water infrastructure.
The now-subtropical low has again headed offshore after ripping through northern parts of WA.
The heavy rainfall brought minor to moderate flooding to the Lyons and Gascoyne river catchments, with water levels expected to keep rising on Sunday in some areas.
Damage to an evacuation centre in Exmouth forced people to relocate to stay safe
Residents showed disturbing images of a wall of red dust engulfing Exmouth prior to the storm
Emergency Services Commissioner, Darren Klemm told reporters on Sunday that recovery and clean-up work following the storm was likely to take weeks.
It comes as incredible images of a wall of red dust engulfing Exmouth and the surrounding areas prior to Narelle’s arrival emerged on social media.
‘Incredibly eerie outside and everything is covered in dust… No filter. This is it. You can feel the dust in your eyes and mouth,’ Shark Bay Caravan Park in Exmouth said in a post sharing footage of the red dust.
A person replied: ‘Looks like Armageddon!’
While another said, ‘You just got dropped onto Mars.’
The caravan park later confirmed they’d emerged largely unscathed, with some cleaning needed to get the park ready just in time for the Easter holidays.
‘The dust storm has left a layer of dust everywhere that we will be cleaning over the next few days,’ they said in a Facebook post on Saturday night.
‘The pool seems to be the worst thing affected and will be out of order until we can get her back to her usual sparkling self.’
The cyclone blew wind gusts of up to 250km/h and dumped a year’s worth of rain on the town
Relief payments of up to $4000 have been made available to cover the immediate needs of residents, such as temporary accommodation, emergency transport, food and clothing.
A one-off payment of $2,000 per household is also available to eligible applicants whose homes have suffered major damage.
The relief payments will be managed by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services’ State Recovery team, with applications and information about eligibility available here.
