Eye of cyclone passes over remote Australian community

SYDNEY - Category Four Cyclone Ingrid, packing wind gusts of up to 230km/h, has hit and damaged the remote community of Kalumburu on Western Australia's north Kimberley coast.

State Emergency Service volunteer Allen Gale today said there had been sketchy reports of damage, but fierce winds were continuing to lash the community, preventing a full assessment.

"We know that there is damage up there at Kalumburu ..." he told Channel Nine.

"We're waiting for winds to abate so people can get outside and do correct damage assessments so we can actually get a full picture."

He said it was not known exactly how strong the winds had been at Kalumburu, but he estimated they had been in excess of 200km/h.

The storm system had slowed and the community was now at risk of flooding, Mr Gale said.

"The next thing to follow up from the wind damage, of course, is flooding," said Mr Gale, who is based in Broome.

However, he said Kalumburu, and other communities in the region including Wyndham and Kununurra, had been well prepared for Ingrid's arrival.

"In Kununurra, we have helicopters sitting on the ground at the moment waiting to actually deploy ... into Kalumburu as soon as the winds will allow it," Mr Gale said.

Some of the town's more vulnerable residents were evacuated to nearby Kununurra yesterday.

Ingrid was downgraded from a category five to a category four late last night.

Early this morning, the Bureau of Meteorology said the storm had crossed the coast close to Kalumburu, and 200km northwest of Wyndham, moving southwest at 13km/h.

Gales with gusts of up to 120km/h are affecting the coast between Mitchell Plateau and Wyndham, with the cyclone expected to track more southerly extending gale conditions to Drysdale River Station during the day, and Gibb River this evening.

Wyndham is only expected to be affected by the outer edge of the cyclone, which is expected to weaken as it travels further inland.

The bureau has also warned dangerously high tides could cause extensive flooding along the coast between Truscott and the Berkeley River mouth.

Earlier this week Ingrid lashed coastal communities in the Northern Territory.

Broome police said authorities would wait for a report from officers in Kalumburu before deciding if three choppers the SES had on standby at Kununurra should be sent in.

"There is obviously some damage but ... due to the darkness they can't go outside so they can't assess the damage at this stage," Graeme Forbes of Broome police told the Nine Network.

He said police in Kalumburu had reported experiencing some "fairly nasty" conditions.

Most residents had spent the night sheltering in their homes as Ingrid raged.

"I believe the elderly and the infirm people -- a number had been taken out prior to the cyclone," he said.

"But most of the people in Kununurra, I believe there's about 250 to 300 in the community at the moment, are just basically holed up in their houses."

- AAP