Cyclone Fina Lands in Australia's Kimberley as Category 3

Severe Tropical Cyclone Fina made landfall in Australia's remote northern Kimberley region late Monday, striking as a category three system with gusts reaching 185 kilometers per hour near the Berkeley River Mouth around 9:30 p.m. The storm tore through sparsely populated coastal areas with destructive winds and heavy rain, prompting emergency warnings for residents to shelter in place as threats to lives and homes persisted into Tuesday.

The cyclone crossed the coast between the King George River Mouth and southeast of the Berkeley River, battering communities with gusts up to 155 kilometers per hour. Damaging winds of up to 120 kilometers per hour extended along the coastline toward the Northern Territory border and into inland areas east of Kalumburu. By early Tuesday, Fina had weakened to a category two system as it pushed inland over mostly unpopulated terrain, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. The agency forecasted further weakening to a tropical low later in the day, though the slow-moving system continued to deliver squally winds and bursts of heavy rainfall across the East Kimberley.

An emergency cyclone warning remained active Tuesday from Cambridge Gulf to north...