Cyclone Seroja devastation quite extraordinary, says Mark McGowan

Three West Australian towns remained in blackout and Geraldton was at a standstill as the slow work of cleaning up from ex-Tropical Cyclone Seroja continued on Tuesday.

The destroyed family home of AFL footballer Jamie Cripps in Northampton.

Three West Australian towns remained in blackout and the grain port of Geraldton was at a standstill as the slow work of cleaning up from ex-Tropical Cyclone Seroja continued on Tuesday.

The holiday town of Kalbarri, 700km north of Perth, bore the brunt of the category-3 system on Sunday night in the middle of the school holidays that herald the beginning of tourist season.

Businesses that cater for an estimated 270,000 visitors to the mid-north coast from April each year have been shut down indefinitely. Seroja hit the mainland on an unusually steep angle, causing varying degrees of damage along a 530km stretch of coastline.

As the scale of the devastation became clear, WA Premier Mark McGowan said the towns of Kalbarri, Northampton and Geraldton would not be back to normal quickly. About 30,000 homes and businesses still had no power late on Tuesday. “I ask people to be patient — it will take some time. The devastation is quite extraordinary,” Mr McGowan said.

Seroja flattened some homes and ripped the roofs off dozens of others. Kalbarri is more than 1000km south of the state’s ­cyclone zone and the last time cyclonic winds lashed the region was in 1956.

Repair work could be especially difficult because WA is in a building boom that has created a shortage of tradespeople and pushed up costs.