Cyclone Veronica: Australia braces for 'very dangerous' second storm

Residents warned to shelter for several hours

Satellite image from NASA shows two severe tropical cyclones over northern Australia on 22 March 2019. Cyclone Veronica (L) is seen over Western Australia and Cyclone Trevor over Northern Territory (top-R). At the time of the image, cyclones Trevor and Veronica both had sustained winds of roughly 175 km per hour, NASA said. (NASA Earth Observatory/EPA)

Australia is bracing for a second powerful cyclone in two days as Cyclone Veronica bears down on the country's northwest coast.

The storm was expected to make landfall Sunday afternoon, a day after Cyclone Trevor hit a remote part of the Northern Territory coast. Weather authorities were forecasting Veronica would hit the coast about 1,600km (1,000 miles) to the west, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia state.

While that area is also lightly populated, residents were warned that because the cyclone was moving slowly — at just eight kilometres per hour (five mile per hour) — they would likely have to shelter for several hours.

A category 3 system on a scale in which 5 is the strongest, Veronica has winds of up to 220 kph (136 mph).

With Trevor downgraded on Sunday to a tropical low pressure system as it moved inland, the more than 2,000 people evacuated from Northern Territory coastal areas in its path began moving back home.

Officials were still awaiting word on any damage to property and livestock. Flood warnings were still in effect for inland areas as the system moved south.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster James Ashley said Veronica was unique because of its slow speed, which would bring a long danger period.

"We are expecting a prolonged period — 12 hours or more — of destructive winds near the core of the cyclone," Ashley said.

Cyclones are frequent in Australia's tropical north and rarely claim lives. But two large storms such as Trevor and Veronica hitting on the same weekend is rare.

AP