Raging Cyclone tears up Western Australia leaves large swath of damage and destruction
Pastor Dale Morgan
Raging Cyclone tears up Western Australia leaves large swath of damage
and destruction*
* From: AAP
* December 22, 2009 4:07PM
TREES were torn from the ground and buildings were badly damaged as
Tropical Cyclone Laurence roared through parts of Western Australia's
Pilbara coast, a witness says.
Karina Turner, whose father owns the Sandfire Roadhouse 30km south of
Eighty Mile Beach, said today the ferocity and noise of the cyclone was
frightening as its 250km/h winds lashed the roadhouse and surrounding
buildings.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said the category five storm had crossed
the coast about 5pm (WST) on yesterday near Wallal Station, about 1800km
northeast of Perth, bringing wind gusts of up to 285km/h and almost
250mm of rain.
The WA Fire and Emergency Services Authority (FESA) said no one appeared
to have been injured but several buildings were damaged in small
communities, including Eighty Mile Beach and Wallal.
Phone connections to most of the stricken centres were down on Tuesday
and power has been disrupted throughout the Pilbara.
Ms Turner said she and her family were forced to take shelter about
three hours before they felt the full brunt of Cyclone Laurence shortly
after 6pm.
She said the noise was deafening as rain battered the house and trees
and bits of roofing iron were blown around.
"The first part of the cyclone was definitely the worst when it was
coming from the east about 6.30," Ms Turner said. "The wind changed
direction and came from the north and you could feel it getting worse as
it picked up speed.
"Water was coming in and you could hear tin rattling in the wind and see
trees falling down and stuff going everywhere."
With daylight showing the extent of the damage, Ms Turner said she was
shocked to see most of the trees levelled and the caravan park toilets gone.
"All the buildings suffered water damage in some way because the rain
was coming in horizontally," she said.
"There's lots of cleaning up to do, but my heart goes out to the people
at Mandora, Wallal and Eighty Mile Beach, who bore the brunt of the
cyclone."
Laurence has since been downgraded to a category three storm, and at 8am
on Tuesday was about 125km west-northwest of Telfer and 160km south
southeast of Wallal.
The Cyclone Warning Centre's Caroline Crow said Laurence was moving
south southeast at 11km/h.
She said the cyclone would continue in a path away from the coast and
was expected to weaken to a category one storm over the next 24 hours.
"Yes, the worst appears to be over, but it still has destructive wind
gusts of 185km/h near the centre of the cyclone," Ms Crow said. "We're
still looking at heavy rainfall in the eastern Pilbara area, possibly in
excess of 200mm near the centre."
A flood warning has been issued for De Grey River Catchment.
Heavy rain and gale force winds associated with the cyclone have forced
the closure of Newcrest Mining Ltd's Telfer gold mine.
The mine, located 450km east southeast of Port Hedland, stopped
production at midnight.
The mine has activated its cyclone response plan and all workers have
been restricted to Telfer village until further notice and all
non-essential workers have been flown off the site.
Newcrest Mining said production should resume tomorrow.