Cyclone Narelle: West Aussie ‘very frustrated’ after paying $1200 for Exmouth flight to assess property damage

One West Aussie has been left scrambling to get to Exmouth to assess the damage to their property after cyclone Narelle battered the town, forking out thousands to fly up there.

Amanda Sanders was planning to travel to her holiday home in Exmouth earlier this week but cancelled the trip because it “looked scary” on account of cyclone Narelle tracking to hit the North West.

The West Aussie from Bencubbin told PerthNow that she nervously watched the home security camera footage of her holiday home as wind and rain pummelled her property until 3am on Friday morning when the power went out.

“Once the power went out, we didn’t know what was going on. So we waited until about lunchtime today so that our friends could go and assess the house and we need to go out there for clean up, we can’t expect anyone to do that for us,” she said.

“We’ve got water damage inside the house and on the ceiling there’s wet patches, so we need to go up and deal with it.”

Ms Sanders claimed earlier in the week a flight from Perth to Exmouth cost $359, but when she looked at what it would cost on Saturday, the prices had surged to $1200 for a one way flight at 12.35pm.

“Normally they have early morning flights so they’re obviously just putting that one flight on at lunchtime because it will be safe by then. And $1200, there’s nothing you can do about it it’s just what you have to do. There’s literally no other way to do this,” she said.

“It’s very frustrating, it’s very very stressful, we can’t drive up there because the roads are going to be flooded, fuel prices don’t even come into it when you’ve got to go. We usually drive up, we never fly, but the roads are going to be closed because they’re going to be flooded.”

Ms Sanders has had the holiday home since 2016 and rents it out through Exmouth Holidays, who pack down their client’s homes in preparation for cyclones, a service she’s incredibly grateful for.

“They’ve done a great job. They had 100 houses to pack down so you can imagine their job when the cyclone’s coming. It’s a lot. We normally go up there... I feel for the real estate agent running around... if they don’t get to your house in time then you’re stuffed,” she said.

Despite the stress, Ms Sanders said extreme weather events do not put her off owning a property in Exmouth and she is reassured by the fact most properties are built to be cyclone rated.

“No (it doesn’t put me off), it’s beautiful up there. The houses up there, you pay to get cyclone built these days. They cost three times more because they’re cyclone rated, that’s why there is minimal damage,” she said.

“If that cyclone hit a town that wasn’t cyclone rated it would be demolished.”

PerthNow contacted Qantas for a comment.