Pardoo Roadhouse, located in Western Australia’s Pilbara, was severely impacted by the former tropical cyclone Ilsa, which has since weakened to a tropical low. The roadhouse owner, Will Batth, described feeling “lucky to be alive” after the category five system passed over the region early on Friday morning.
Mr. Batth told Nadia Mitsopoulos on ABC Radio Perth, “We took a chance and made the dash and I don’t know how, with the adrenaline, we managed to open the sea container door and managed to hide in there.” He also said that running through the wind gusts was like “taking two steps forward, three steps back.” Mr. Batth says they had lived through category one and two cyclones before, but Ilsa was “next level.”
The roadhouse suffered significant damage, with Mr. Batth reporting that the roof and all accommodation were blown away, leaving only remnants of the property. In the morning, Mr. Batth said they found a road sign from 10km away, blown into what remains of their roadhouse.
“All the roof is gone, everything else is gone, any accommodation dongas we had, everything’s blown away, there’s not even one wood pile left from them,” he said. Although they managed to escape harm, the roadhouse has incurred a damage bill of over $4 million.
Fortunately, there have been no reports of injuries, and major centres such as Port Hedland and Bidyadanga have avoided significant damage. In a Facebook post, the Pardoo Roadhouse said the property had been “wiped out” by the cyclone, but they were all safe.
Despite the cancellation of cyclone warnings, the weather bureau warns that the remnants of Ilsa will continue to produce damaging winds as it moves southeast across the northern interior overnight before moving into the southern part of the Northern Territory on Saturday morning.
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