Communities still warning to return home four days after cyclone

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Four days after cyclone Zeila tore through Western Australia's Pilbara some residents are still waiting to return home. The system crossed the coast as a category four cyclone with flood waters affecting highways and cutting off remote communities.

Transcript

00:00There's about 60 people from the remote Warralong community still here at the evacuation centre

00:07in South Headland.

00:09They were airlifted from their homes over the weekend after ex-tropical cyclone Zelia

00:14made landfall and it looked likely that it was going to flood.

00:18Now Warralong is about 120 kilometres east of where we are at the moment, further inland.

00:24It's just north of Marble Bar, which we also know has been cut off from floodwaters, as

00:29well as other communities like Nullagine.

00:32Now emergency services did go to Warralong yesterday in the chopper and they took along

00:37with them community elders to assess the damage so that they can come back here and relay

00:42that information to the residents.

00:45The emergency services minister, Stephen Dawson, confirmed yesterday that four homes had been

00:51damaged and he believed it was the accommodation of the teachers.

00:54Here's what he had to say.

00:56I understand four houses have been damaged at Warralong community.

01:00I think they are teachers' housing and so there may well be a need to get some temporary

01:04accommodation there to enable the teachers to live there, to enable the kids to go to

01:08school.

01:09So that will obviously be a priority.

01:10And then certainly on some of the stations, at this stage I think there are three dongers

01:15damaged where people may well have been living, although rapid damage assessments and the

01:20use of our team are on the ground at the moment.

01:22Now it's significant because the school is really the centre of the community.

01:26We know the Department of Communities is coordinating trades to be sent out there and to repair

01:32any damages before the residents go home.

01:35But in the meantime, the priority is really to keep the kids here busy and occupied so

01:39that they're not sitting around bored.

01:41We know they're being taken out fishing today.

01:43There's a barbecue scheduled for later and other activities organised like painting.

01:48Community services are heading back out to Warralong today with the community elders

01:53so hopefully we'll have a bit more clarity about when they can go home and hopefully

01:57it's soon.

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