Life is on hold for thousands of residents and countless businesses along the West Australian coast as a category three storm threatens to make landfall.
Tropical Cyclone Mitchell continues to stalk the Pilbara coast, with landfall between Onslow and Exmouth forecast for late Sunday or early Monday.
An emergency warning is in place for the Pilbara town of Onslow, whose roughly 800 residents have been forced to take shelter.
Onslow’s Beadon Bay Hotel closed its doors on Saturday, but not before locals could stock up on supplies.
“Everybody's been down to the bottle shop and collected a couple of bottles and a case of beer,” Beadon Bay Hotel general manager Dee Egan told AAP.
Mr Egan said conditions were moderate on Sunday, though winds and rain continued to lift throughout the afternoon.
Staff have since holed up at their onsite lodgings, joining thousands across the country’s northwest subject to sweeping weather warnings.
Residents from Whim Creek to Onslow have been told it is too late to leave and they must seek shelter indoors immediately.
In Exmouth, locals have been clearing their properties and gathering supplies for days.
"I haven't seen the town looking so clean and tidy for as long as I can remember," Exmouth Shire president Matthew Niikkula told AAP
He said the town has not experienced a cyclone of this strength in a decade, adding conditions could be "extremely frightening".
"It's just that darkness and the screaming 200km/h winds that sound like banshees running around outside," Mr Niikkula said.
Conditions were expected to escalate until the system makes landfall, when impacts will be most severe, senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury told AAP.
"Wind gusts are going to be 170km/h or possibly even higher around the eye of the cyclone," she said, adding trees and power lines would likely tumble
Heavy rainfall, flash flooding, dangerous river rises are expected across parts of the Pilbara and the Gascoyne.
Impacts have already been felt in coastal towns bruised by the passing cyclone as it swept southwest offshore.
Residents in Karratha remained sheltered in place on Sunday after Mitchell brought wind gusts of up to 95km/h overnight.
"No one can get out and about yet, so I don't know what the town looks like outside," Karratha Econo Lodge venue manager Nadine Askevold told AAP.
Mitchell is expected to weaken shortly after making landfall, losing steam as it drifts in a more southerly direction inland.
While peak winds are expected to ease within hours of the system crossing the coast, flooding risks could persist for days, Ms Bradbury said.
Major ports along the Pilbara coastline were forced to close on Saturday as the weather system passed north of Port Hedland.
Evacuations centres have been opened at Karratha Leisureplex, Onslow Multi Purpose Centre and Exmouth Shire Hall.
