A series of isolated coastal towns are in the firing line as a powerful tropical cyclone barrels towards Australia’s west coast, Australian Associated Press reports.

Tropical Cyclone Narelle, which was upgraded yesterday to a severe category 4 system off Western Australian packing winds up to 250km/h, is on track to cross the coast late on Friday between Carnarvon and Kalbarri as a degraded category 3 system.

It was tracking parallel to the coast around Exmouth overnight, the Bureau of Meteorology said, and would affect Coral Bay and Denham before crossing the coast in the Shark Bay area.

Kalbarri State Emergency Service deputy Steve Duncan said the town was as prepared as it could be for Narelle’s arrival in the early hours of Saturday.

“The majority of the town was here for (Cyclone Seroja in 2021),” he said.

“That’s one benefit of past events, people are more aware.”

Seroja flattened the coastal town of about 1,500 people after it crossed the coast as a category three system.

“People are still quite jumpy,” Duncan said.

“It was quite a traumatic event for the town, so people are very wary on any potential cyclone Impact in the area, which is quite understandable.”

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