Severe tropical cyclone Ilsa: Port Hedland ‘dodges bullet’ as wind gusts smash records at almost 290km/h

Port Hedland has dodged what are believed to be the strongest winds ever recorded in Australia, but it’s still “a live event” for miners and remote communities in severe tropical cyclone Ilsa’s path who have been urged to remain vigilant.

Ilsa crossed the coast as a category five around midnight, packing wind gusts well in excess of 250km/h as it barrelled towards Pardoo Roadhouse and nearby cattle stations.

Acting emergency services minister Sue Ellery said it was the first category five system to make landfall in WA since 2009, bringing very destructive winds and heavy rain to an area between De Grey and Pardoo Roadhouse.

The landmark “copped the full impact”.

“It would have been for them a terrifying night and a distressing sight this morning,” Ms Ellery told reporters.

Repairs to the roadhouse would be covered by insurance, not disaster relief funds, but the State Government would do what it could to assist that process, she added.

Department of Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Darren Klemm said the owners had clearly been through an ordeal.

“They’ve obviously got their reasons as to why they decided to stay there,” Mr Klemm said.

Bureau of Meteorology’s Todd Smith said Bedout Island’s automatic weather station recorded a wind gust of 289 kilometres an hour when the cyclone tracked over, smashing records.

“The fact that the cyclone took a southeast-ward shift in the track late yesterday afternoon really means that Port Hedland dodged a bullet last night,” he said.

“Most of the impacts as we’ve seen are further to the east and the impacts in Port Hedland were really light, with the system tracking about 150km further along the track.”

Mr Klemm said he was “quite concerned” overnight that the cyclone would smash the export hub.

“It certainly looked like it was going to hit immediately due south and impact Hedland, and it was only in the last three or four hours that it made that turn off to the east,” he said.

“It’s a major centre, a very important centre for the State.”

Ms Ellery said it was fortunate other major population centers including Bidyadanga were spared the worst of the cyclone.

“I’ve been told that early assessments in those areas show damage is fairly minimal and that’s a huge relief for those people living and working in that area,” she said.

At 12.30pm on Friday, the storm was downgraded to a category two, passing over Newcrest’s Telfer gold mine site, and tracking east across the Pilbara towards Punmu and Kunawarritji communities.

“There’s still a cyclone warning out for Telfer and also for communities well inland through Great Sandy Desert,” Mr Smith said.

Those communities were urged to remain vigilant for “today at least”.

Mr Klemm said the danger was “certainly not over yet” for those communities east of Telfer.

Mr Smith said the bureau expected the system to fall below cyclone intensity and track off into the Northern Territory on Saturday.

There had been “a fair bit” of heavy rain in the De Grey River catchment, prompting flood warnings.

“We’ve had on the order of 150 to 200 millimetres of rainfall in that catchment,” Mr Smith said.

“Many of the streams are rising rapidly in response to that so road conditions out there are not going to be good.

“As that water makes its way down through the catchment, we are expecting minor flooding at Coolenar Pool at the Great Northern Highway.”

Ms Ellery said it was “still early days”.

“This is a live event. To all the communities in the Pilbara and the Kimberley: please take care of yourselves, your family members and stay safe.”

Mr Klemm said it was too early to estimate a number of properties that had been damaged.