Cyclone Seroja five years on: Kalbarri, Northampton reflect on Seroja after near miss with cyclone Narelle

In the lead-up to Easter, Kalbarri residents started to relive a nightmare.

They waited with anxious, bated breath as they prepared for cyclone Narelle to hit them. Surely it couldn’t be happening again, especially as the five-year anniversary of Seroja that left their town in ruins was just around the corner.

Much to their immense surprise and relief, the town woke the morning after, with hardly a breeze to be felt, the cyclone having completely bypassed them overnight.

A very different story compared to the morning after tropical cyclone Seroja hit them five years ago.

A STORM OF VENGEANCE

On April 11, 2021, the Mid West’s coastal gem was struck full force by the devastating category three system, forcing residents to take any shelter they could while terrifying howling winds up to 170km/h tore houses and their town apart.

Seroja carved a swathe of destruction through the Mid West beyond Kalbarri, also reaching the towns of Northampton, Mullewa, Morawa, Perenjori and Mingenew.

It was estimated that Seroja left a $400 million damage bill, with 70 per cent of all Kalbarri’s town structures damaged or destroyed.

Kalbarri residents described the frightening event as a “storm of vengeance”, leaving piles of rubble and “broken spirits” in its path.

It was clear the town was not built to withstand such a weather event — giving it no chance against the raging storm.

Coming together to rebuild from the ground up, Kalbarri locals said they will forever be traumatised and live in fear that another cyclone will hit them again.

Melissa Finlay, owner of Finlay’s restaurant, said merely talking about Seroja was enough to take her back to the harrowing night her family huddled together under a mattress while the roof above them was savagely ripped off.

“Just talking about it gives me goosebumps. But we all survived, and we came together to help rebuild as one,” she said.

“First night was pretty surreal,” SES operations manager Steve Cable recalled.

He was stationed at the SES unit with six other people waiting for the cyclone to abate enough to respond to calls.

“We could hear metal flying through the air. We could hear roofs hitting buildings,” he said.

“When we went out, it was total devastation. Got out there and there was roofs in the middle of the road. Power lines were down.”

Mr Cable said “there was people shell-shocked, walking down the road”.

PREPARING FOR THE WORST

This time around when cyclone Narelle was bearing down, community preparation looked a bit different. Mr Cable said there was “no complacency” from Kalbarri residents when preparing for Narelle.

He said a big issue with Seroja was that no one expected cyclones so far south.

“The biggest problem was we’d never had a cyclone in Kalbarri. It’s not going to happen, you know. Traditionally, the feeling was, Carnarvon was about the bottom rung of the attack. And then, of course, we’ve got something that come across and bang. So the complacency is gone,” he said.

Mr Cable had extensive experience responding to cyclones from his work further north.

“We had all our preps, everything was checked, everything was decked out, all our systems to operate, were ready to go,” he said.

If there’s one sentiment shared by everyone it’s that the SES response was incredible.

“One of the problems is politics gets in the way quite often of a good operation. We’ve got to be seen to be doing this, and it’s counterproductive to what you’re actually trying to achieve,” Mr Cable said, though he added that was a problem in every sphere.

Looking back at the SES response, Mr Cable said it was “spot on”.

“You can always fine tune and there were a few anomalies there, so we need to try and address that,” he said.

Enthusiasm for volunteering remains strong in Kalbarri, where the SES works closely with St John WA, park rangers, the police and firefighting forces.

THE PERSONAL TOLL

For local business owner, Jamie-lee Loffler, cyclone Seroja was the start of a tough journey.

Ms Loffler said the cyclone was incredibly traumatic, but the challenges she has faced in the following years have been even tougher.

With her two shops right on the beachfront, High Tide and Kalbarri Surf Shop, Ms Loffler said the financial damage from the cyclone was immense and long-lasting.

Her house was also severely damaged, leaving her drowning in a financial mess and a battle with her insurance company.

Ms Loffler said for six months following Seroja, structural damage meant her boutique was surrounded by fences and scaffolding.

Her business was open, yet from the outside it looked closed, leaving Ms Loffler with a shop filled to the brim with merchandise and no customers to sell to.

“It would have been the best-case scenario if it did just hit and smash my shop, because that would be the only way I’d actually get any financial help,” she said.

“At the time, retail was probably the best it had ever been. We were on this huge high, ramping up for the biggest Easter yet, and then the cyclone hit.”

Ms Loffler said after the devastation, she was left with a damaged shop, no tourists and $100,000 worth of stock.

Now with cost-of-living pressures so high, Ms Loffler said she has struggled to keep her head above water as her mortgage repayments have doubled and business margins have decreased.

Through it all, she has remained resilient and persevered through all challenges to support her community and keep her businesses running.

A valued and dedicated member of the Kalbarri community, Ms Loffler said post-cyclone she now dreamt of living in Italy and pursuing her passion for food.

Another resident, Steve Wiseman, lived in his factory for nearly four years after his house was destroyed in the storm.

“I was fortunate that I had the factory I could live in. Not really the nicest of places to live, but I got used to it,” he said.

He was confident in the structural integrity of his rebuilt home, but worried that not all homes had been constructed to a high standard.

“I have a pile of steel at my factory still lying on the floor that’s supposed to be in houses around town, and the builders never came to get it,” he said.

Mr Wiseman predicted that Kalbarri would see problems in the future with some of the building work done in the aftermath of the storm.

“We call them bush cowboys. They came into town, storm chasers, as they’re now known. They follow the storms and do the rebuilds after the storms, because that’s the big money. Then they move on. No consequence goes back on the builder,” he said.

FUNDING AND GOVERNMENT RESPONSE

A couple of months after Seroja, the State and Federal governments united to provide a record $104.5 million recovery package.

The grants, covering 16 local government areas, were to help cyclone-impacted families, primary producers, businesses and local governments with the clean-up and recovery.

According to a State Government spokesperson this week, the full package wasn’t all paid out, with a total of $83.11 million spent.

Then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he was dedicated to supporting WA communities.

“These communities will continue to get the support they need, that’s the commitment we’re making today with this more than $100 million investment to help them build back stronger than ever before,” he said.

Mr Cable said there were still upgrades that could be made in preparation for future natural disasters, especially to ensure mobile phone coverage was available during blackouts.

“All it is, Telstra had towers, and they have battery banks. And of course, the battery banks are supplied by power. Lose power, after a while the battery goes,” he said.

Mr Cable said the ability to secure an external generator to the telco towers would assure mobile communications during future black-outs.

FIVE YEARS ON

Post-Seroja, Kalbarri has received a “face lift”, including removal of homes that were built with asbestos, according to Mr Cable.

“The whole town’s fresher and newer and cleaner,” he said.

“One of the big problems with Seroja was asbestos houses, because they’re the old fishermen’s huts. There’s still some left, but most are gone. So that’s one problem that’s been lessened to a large extent.”

Rob Horstman, now a State Nationals politician, led the Northampton Cyclone Response Committee in the immediate aftermath of the cyclone.

In the lead-up to cyclone Narelle, he said he got goosebumps thinking about it.

“There’s still a lot of residual concern whenever there is a cyclone pending or there’s a chance that it could possibly come down south. I think there’s always that concern,” he said.

The insurance battles, wait times on building supplies, and construction costs have left their mark on the whole region.

“I almost felt like the community was recovering from the recovery … we needed to recover from that process,” Mr Horstman said.

“Because it was a lot of people who spent years waiting on insurance claims, which was an ongoing issue. People were under insured or building costs had gone up. There was a lot of stress and anguish that I do think left some residual stress for people.”

Mr Horstman said the community spirit of Kalbarri and Northampton remained strong.

“When you’ve got people that are willing to check on neighbours after events, are willing to pretty much do whatever they can, I would say that the fabric of the community is still strong,” he said.

Five years on from the traumatic event that still lingers to this day, Mrs Finlay said she wanted to see more effective and proactive government action and support for struggling businesses.

She said she wanted to see the Federal Government introduce a JobKeeper payment specific to natural disasters to help businesses keep their staff while not making money from usual trading hours.

Roads and towns were also opened to tourists too quickly post disaster, Mrs Finlay said.

“When everything reopens again, we need at least a week to soft launch the idea so we can prepare, mentally and physically,” she said.

“There was no warning from the Government when they wanted to reopen the roads to Kalbarri. From a regional perspective, that was a big thing.

“The community didn’t like it. The businesses didn’t like it. I think a lot of the community thought the businesses pushed for it, which was not what we asked for at all.”

STILL NO EVACUATION CENTRE

The Shire of Northampton has finally ticked off all infrastructure repairs on its list, according to shire president Liz Sudlow.

Ms Sudlow said since the cyclone, Kalbarri had received a much-needed face lift but this didn’t disguise or hide the pain and trauma suffered.

Despite fixes and repairs to buildings, the foreshore, carparks and houses, the town was still left without an evacuation centre.

Ms Sudlow said the evacuation centre was still a pending construction job based on a lack of certainty around community wants, building approvals, government regulations and funding.

The shire has previously sought disaster recovery funding to build the evacuation centre, with no success.

As one of their election promises, the Nationals campaigned for a $7 million evacuation centre to be built in Kalbarri, and Geraldton MLA Kirrilee Warr called the situation “unacceptable”.

“Kalbarri residents bore the brunt of Seroja, but after five years the State Government has only put money towards planning,” she said.

“Now the Cook Labor Government must ensure this facility is built by committing funding in the upcoming State Budget. As it stands, people in Kalbarri are left with little options in the event of emergencies and this needs to change.”

A Northampton farmer, Ms Sudlow said the anniversary was a tough time for her each year.

Having faced significant damage to her own farm while supporting her communities, Ms Sudlow does not look back on the weather tragedy fondly.

“There is still a degree of trauma in terms of cyclones, storms and weather events. I have got to the stage where I have certainly not enjoyed each of the Seroja anniversaries,” she said.

“For some people, the memories are very triggering, some people think they’re doing OK until they’re triggered by something and realise they’re not. You don’t expect the emotion to sneak up on you.”