Severe thunderstorm brings 115kph winds, rips roofs off homes in Marble Bar

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Homes in Pilbara town of Marble Bar have been left ‘uninhabitable’ after a freak storm tore through the tow yesterday afternoon. Residents have described it as short but ferocious, destroying five homes and damaging several more.

Transcript

00:00It came out of nowhere and without warning. The freak storm smashing the town with wind

00:10gusts up to 115 kilometres an hour.

00:13It was just, it was crazy. The strong rain went on for about 15 minutes before it stopped

00:18and it was just a bit of wind after that. But it was just a hectic 15 minutes.

00:23The trail of destruction clear with several homes destroyed and fences and debris strewn

00:28across the town.

00:29One of the houses where the roofs came off, it's three houses down on an angle and the

00:36roof flew straight over and landed on my neighbour's car.

00:40There was no early warning for residents to prepare with an emergency warning issued after

00:44the storm had rolled through. Authorities are grateful no one was injured with the worst

00:49of the impacts confined to a small area.

00:52Five houses which are uninhabitable and we also had an ablution block at a caravan park

00:57which was completely destroyed. We also have a further 11 properties which have been impacted.

01:03I saw the tip of a tornado literally come out of the clouds and drop down, do a bit

01:11of a fish hook and suck back up.

01:14Early indications suggest this was a microburst event, a severe microburst from a thunderstorm.

01:20But there's still possibility that the damage was caused by a tornado as many thunderstorms

01:26do carry the risk of traumatic activity with them.

01:29At least five of the properties damaged contained asbestos. Authorities now blocking off access

01:34to the affected sites.

01:36Given the concerns about asbestos I'd just like to reinforce we're advising the community

01:40to stay away from damaged homes and take care when moving around the town.

01:46Additional SES crews have been sent to assist on the ground. The clean up now underway expected

01:51to last for days to come.

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