Cyclone Narelle live: Category 4 storm steamrolls along Pilbara coast, flights cancelled, towns batten down

Saturday’s Fremantle fixture will be “going ahead as planned”, the AFL has declared, with fans warned to brace for a potential thunderstorm and up to 50 millimetres of heavy rain.

As Cyclone Narelle batters the WA coast, the AFL and the Dockers have confirmed the clash with Richmond won’t be shifted from its scheduled 1.15pm start time despite the forecast wild conditions.

“I would be preparing for a wet-weather match if you are heading to Optus Stadium this weekend,” BoM meteorologist Jess Lingard said.

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Coles says it has brought extra stock into stores at risk of being cut off due to road closures, including in the Mid West and Pilbara, as cyclone Narelle closes in.

The cyclone has strengthened into a severe Category 4 system and continues to steamroll south parallel to the north-west coast, bringing destructive wind and heavy rainfall.

A Coles spokesman said it was closely monitoring weather conditions and any potential impacts to freight routes.

“We have been preparing for cyclone Narelle by moving additional stock into our stores ahead of time,” he said.

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City of Greater Geraldton mayor Jerry Clune said the region was on flood watch this weekend.

“It’s very much for the impacted areas, which are quite wide. So we will be ever on the lookout,” he said.

“Of course, we’ll get a fair bit of fallen branches, trees, road damage and floodways.

“And then the possibility of houses getting damaged as well is an impact in the in the Geraldton and Mid West we will be watching for.”

Cr Clune said that despite the category of the cyclone potentially looking to be downgraded by the time it reached Geraldton, it was still best to prepare for the worst.

Four dedicated sandbag collection sites were put up around Geraldton this morning, with residents reporting the bags running low, despite huge mounds of sand remaining.

At the Point Moore collection site, there was a steady flow of people throughout the morning with family, mates and neighbours helping each other fill the bags.

Here’s more video of severe tropical cyclone Narelle pummeling WA’s north from our wonderful local contact Tahlya Brown in Karratha.

Locals in the Mid West have started stockpiling food supplies ahead of the weekend storm, with shelves clearing out at IGA, Coles and Woolworths.

Stuart Bain, Rigters IGA operations manager, said staff were seeing a larger amount of customers coming in to grab extra supplies or top up as other supermarkets in town had run out.

“We’ve put limits in place on many items so everyone has a change to get some and to reduce panic buying. As stock levels on items change we will adjust limits up and down as needed,” he said.

“We have many plans already in place to ensure the safety of our staff and customers, as well as extra deliveries and priority loads coming from Perth and other suppliers in preparation.”

A Coles spokesperson said the supermarket giant planned well in advance for severe weather events and worked closely with suppliers and transport providers to move additional stock into affected areas.

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Department of Fire and Emergency Services commissioner Darren Klemm says crews are preparing for a repeat of tropical cyclone Seroja.

Seroja tore a path of destruction through Kalbarri and Northampton in 2021.

Mr Klemm said if Narelle ended up impacting the coast as a category 3 system, it would cause “significant damage for those homes that aren’t cyclone-rated”.

He said authorities had a high level of confidence about fuel stocks in the communities.

“We’ll take some of our own fuel up there as well into Shark Bay, to make sure our crews that are going to be based there and in Exmouth can access fuel if they need it,” he said.

A search and rescue team has been deployed to Exmouth, while a State Emergency Service storm damage crew is in Denham laying sandbags along its flood-prone foreshore.

People in WA’s north have been offered a sliver of hope from Australian airline Rex, which is offering additional flights to evacuate tourists.

Two extra flights have been added for travellers wishing to depart Shark Bay Airport and Carnarvon Airport on Thursday afternoon.

Flight ZL2267 will depart from Shark Bay to Perth at 3.05pm, while flight ZL2442 will depart from Carnarvon to Perth at 7.25pm.

Both Denham and Carnarvon are expected to be in tropical cyclone Narelle’s path when it makes landfall from Thursday night.

It’s joyous news for travellers, after aviation giants Qantas and Virgin cancelled a slew of flights to and from WA’s north on Wednesday.

The Bureau of Meteorology has not ruled out Narelle reaching a category 5 system.

“At this stage the team are not ruling out the risk of it potentially reaching a category five system briefly as well,” senior forecaster Jessica Lingard told ABC Radio.

The system was elevated to a category four system just after midday on Thursday.

It is expected to weaken as it makes landfall, likely late on Friday night near Shark Bay.

Experts warn that Perth could break a 91-year weather record as residents across the State prepare for tropical cyclone Narelle.

Residents in WA’s north have begun to bunker down and tourists have been urged to leave as the Category 4 system continues to move towards the Pilbara.

While Perth residents got a small taste of Narelle with damaging winds on Thursday morning, weather experts have warned it’s the heavy rainfall that should concern city dwellers.

The daily March rainfall record for the Perth metropolitan area is 77.6mm, which poured over parts of the city in 1934.

Bureau meteorologist Jessica Lingard says there is a chance that Perth will beat that record this weekend.

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Severe tropical cyclone Narelle has been declared a category 4 system and is expected to continue to strengthen.

The Bureau of Meteorology has warned that damaging impacts are possible for the west Pilbara and Gascoyne coasts.

It comes as experts have not ruled out the gigantic storm revving up to a scary category 5 system.