Western Australia picks up the pieces after cyclone

SYDNEY • A tropical cyclone that hit Australia's west coast destroyed several homes and cut electricity to tens of thousands of people overnight before weakening yesterday morning.

Officials said around 70 per cent of the structures in the coastal town of Kalbarri, about 500km north of Western Australia's capital Perth, had sustained damage when the Category 3 storm made landfall on Sunday.

"The devastation caused by Cyclone Seroja is widespread and severe," said Mr Mark McGowan, the state's premier.

Around 40 per cent of the damage was major, said Western Australia's emergency services commissioner Darren Klemm.

No deaths or major injuries have been reported.

A recovery effort is now underway as the biggest threat has passed, said Mr McGowan.

There are 31,500 customers still without power supply, which he said could take days to restore.

Seroja was downgraded to Category 2 after it made landfall, and further down to a weaker tropical low-pressure system. But it still brought heavy rain and strong winds. Photos on social media and local broadcasts show downed power lines, debris and houses stripped of roofs and walls.

The authorities in Western Australia have opened three evacuation centres for displaced residents.

The region had been placed on high alert for the storm, given that houses and other buildings were not built to withstand tropical cyclones, which usually do not push so far south.

"This is a rare weather event for people in southern and eastern parts of (Western Australia)," the Bureau of Meteorology said.

REUTERS