Severe Tropical Cyclone Zelia has intensified into a Category 5 system, bringing destructive winds of up to 290 kilometres per hour as it tracks towards Western Australia's iron ore export hub. The cyclone is expected to make landfall near Port Hedland late Friday, with its most dangerous core predicted to cross the coast between De Grey and Karratha.
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00:00The effects of strong winds and heavy rain are already being felt in Port Hedland.
00:08Off the coast, Cyclone Zelia is now a Category 5 system, with very destructive winds up to
00:13290km per hour.
00:16The world's largest bulk export port has been shut down and cleared of ships, and locals
00:21are deciding whether to shelter at home or in evacuation centres.
00:24Pretty nervous because I've got kids at home, so yeah, we're just like deciding whether
00:28we drive north or stay here, so I think we're going to stay here, but we'll see how we go.
00:33Especially if we go to the stores, everything is finished, the people are buying everything.
00:38The cyclone is on track to cross the Pilbara coast as early as Friday evening, but its
00:43path is unpredictable.
00:44It continues to move west along the Pilbara coast, and at the moment the track shows it
00:51going between Port Hedland and Karratha, and if we see it continually moving west,
00:57then we're looking at an impact into Karratha and Dampier.
01:01Thousands of Karratha residents also in the firing line.
01:04Well, it's sort of come on quite late, we've been a bit unprepared because it's sort of
01:08turning more towards Karratha now, so we're just coming to get the sandbags because we're
01:12in a low-lying area over in Bulgara.
01:15We did a bit of a shop yesterday, got some suppliers water, and yeah, grabbing a few sandbags.
01:22Others fuelling up and preparing to head south away from Karratha.
01:26Authorities are urging tens of thousands of residents living along the Pilbara coast to
01:30keep an eye on the latest information about where Cyclone Zelia will hit.