Tilly and co come through Tropical Cyclone Narelle with flying colours
Tropical Cyclone Narelle
Portland Roads residents Tilly Rehn and Katie and Jayson Watkin have come through Tropical Cyclone Narelle relatively unscathed with a big clean-up ahead and little chance of roads opening up to the remote location for weeks.
The trio bunkered down on Friday at The Temple, which is built around and incorporates a WWII ammunition bunker, and while “unsettling” and with a few nervous moments when roofing sheets were ripped from the building, Tilly says she was surprise that not more damage had been done when they emerged from sheltering from the cyclone, which had been tipped to deliver the strongest winds in Queensland history.
And a bit of Dutch courage the night before may have helped the crew get through, she laughed.
“We did have a few drinks the night before to settle our nerves,’’ Tilly said.
“And we were woken at 6am as the winds picked up.
“It was definitely scary. Especially when the sheets of iron were shaking.’’
Tilly said most trees across the region had been stripped of foliage and all of their paw paw and banana trees were either over or bare.
“But we were surprised that not more trees fell over,’’ she added.
“There is nothing major that we can see has been impacted here. A tree did fall on the power line out the front and we lost power for a bit.
“There’s a lot of green waste to clean up.’’
While reports from the Lockhart weather station suggested wind speed hit 60knots (110km/h), Tilly considered it may have been stronger at the more exposed Portland Roads.
“The Pascoe River broke its record height at 19m,’’ she said.
“Cyclone Trevor it reached 15m. It goes to show we face and lack access for support… roads won't be open for a long while.’’
Coen, in direct line with Tropical Cyclone Narelle, also escaped major damage, Queensland Police releasing footage of the township on Friday afternoon showing trees down and swollen rivers, but reporting no major damage.
The Northern Territory’s Top End was left saturated ahead of TC Narelle, which crossed the eastern Top End Coast as a Category 3 system overnight on Saturday after tracking across Cape York as a Category 4 cyclone.
By Sunday morning, TC Narelle had reduced to a Category 2 system as it tracked into the Northern Territory and was downgraded to a tropical low later in the day.
Ergon Energy crews were able to restore power to Coen, Lockhart River, Napranum and most of Aurukun on Saturday.
Crews worked in Aurukun on Sunday to get all customers restored by the end of the weekend.
Ergon Energy has left defect notices at premises where customers have had damage to their property that requires a licensed electrical contractor to do repairs.
These repairs will need to be carried out before Ergon Energy can safely reconnect those customers to network electricity supply.
Customers in remote and isolate communities can also talk to their council.
Fallen powerlines can be hidden in tree branches and other cyclone debris. Take extra care when you are cleaning up, stay well away from any fallen powerlines and report them to emergency services on 000 or call the Ergon Faults Team on 13 16 70.
