As Tropical Cyclone Narelle, one of the most powerful storms in a generation, approached remote cattle stations in Queensland, residents took refuge in shipping containers. Debbie Jackson, her husband Kevin, their family, and a friend spent the night in containers as the storm, with wind gusts up to 270km/h, tore through Archer River, about 650km north of Cairns.
Witnesses reported trees uprooted and dumped onto houses and sheds. Debbie Cameron, manager of the Archer River roadhouse, described the scene as 'devastation', with buildings crushed and sheds down. She prepared to flee to a nearby hill if floodwaters from the Archer River rose, but faced a race between rising water and dropping winds.
The storm made landfall in remote Cape York on Friday morning, having formed in the Coral Sea just two days earlier. Record ocean temperatures fueled its rapid intensification to a category 5 cyclone offshore. It was forecast to cross the coast at that level, but ultimately hit as a category 4 system near Lockhart River, a community of 700 people.
David Clarke, CEO of the shire council, said the community was 'relatively unscathed' due to two days of preparation. 'All of our folks are cyclone-hardened from birth,' he noted. Winds reached 130-140km/h, lower than the predicted 160km/h, but Clarke called it 'bloody horrendous' and said anything at 315km/h would make people nervous.
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli had urged residents to take the storm seriously, noting that a category 5 crossing in that area would be the first in over 100 years. The storm produced sustained winds of 195km/h, just 5km/h shy of category 5. It swung north away from Coen, 'threading the needle' between communities. As of Friday afternoon, no injuries were reported.
