SYDNEY – Two small Western Australian towns suffered “widespread damage” when Cyclone Seroja struck a part of the country that rarely experiences tropical storms, said emergency services yesterday.
The storm, which devastated parts of Indonesia and East Timor last week, brought lashing rains and winds of up to 170kph to areas that officials said have not seen a tropical cyclone in “decades”.
Public broadcaster ABC reported that 70% of structures in Kalbarri – home to about 1,500 people – were damaged.
Local media showed images of homes with their roofs ripped off and debris scattered across streets.
In Northampton, a town of fewer than 1,000 people about an hour’s drive south, there is also “widespread damage”, said Western Australia’s emergency services.
“Crews are still assessing the damage, and it is not currently safe to go outside because of hazards,” a spokesman told AFP.
There have been no reports of injuries or deaths overnight, she said.
Seroja made landfall as a Category 3 storm late yesterday, before crossing the continent’s southwest and being downgraded to a “tropical low” this morning.
Tens of thousands of homes in Western Australia’s Mid West region were left without power, and a historic jetty in the town of Carnarvon was destroyed.
The Meteorological Bureau said it is the first cyclone to hit some affected areas since 1956.
The storm last week left more than 200 people dead in Indonesia and neighbouring East Timor, while thousands more were forced to flee their homes. – AFP, April 12, 2021
