The Australian Army has been called in to Western Australia’s cyclone-ravaged north, as flood waters continue to rise.
Ex-tropical Cyclone Veronica has dumped more than a year’s worth of rain along parts of WA’s Pilbara coast in less than 12 hours.
At midday, Veronica had weakened below cyclone intensity when it was 60 kilometres north of Onslow.
Veronica will continue to weaken as it moves west of the WA coast on Wednesday and is not expected to reform into a Tropical Cyclone.
Despite weakening, the system has continued to deliver heavy rain to areas south east of its core during the last 24 hours.
Roebourne Airport received more than 250mm of rain in just two hours early this morning. By 5am, the site had received more than a year’s worth of rain during the previous 12 hours.
As of 5am, Roebourne Airport had received 332.4mm of rain since 9am on Monday. This is their highest daily total in more than 100 years of records.
Remarkably, Karratha Airport had only received 13mm of rain during the 12 hours up to 5am.
Further east, Port Hedland picked up another 134mm of rain overnight, bringing their three-day total to 355mm. This is their wettest three-day spell since 1967.
Agencies