Cyclone batters Western Australia

Trees were torn from the ground and buildings badly damaged as Tropical Cyclone Laurence roared through WA.

Karina Turner, whose father owns the Sandfire Roadhouse 30km south of Eighty Mile Beach, said on Tuesday the ferocity and noise of the cyclone was frightening as its 250kmh winds lashed the roadhouse and surrounding buildings.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said the category five storm had crossed the coast about 5pm (WST) on Monday near Wallal Station, about 1800km northeast of Perth, bringing wind gusts of up to 285kmh and almost 250mm of rain.

The WA Fire and Emergency Services Authority (FESA) said no one appeared to have been injured but several buildings were damaged in small communities, including Eighty Mile Beach and Wallal.

Phone connections to most of the stricken centres were down on Tuesday and power has been disrupted throughout the Pilbara.

Ms Turner said she and her family were forced to take shelter about three hours before they felt the full brunt of Cyclone Laurence shortly after 6pm.

She said the noise was deafening as rain battered the house and trees and bits of roofing iron were blown around.

"The first part of the cyclone was definitely the worst when it was coming from the east about 6.30," Ms Turner said.

"The wind changed direction and came from the north and you could feel it getting worse as it picked up speed.

"Water was coming in and you could hear tin rattling in the wind and see trees falling down and stuff going everywhere."

With daylight showing the extent of the damage, Ms Turner said she was shocked to see most of the trees levelled and the caravan park toilets gone.

"All the buildings suffered water damage in some way because the rain was coming in horizontally," she said.

"There's lots of cleaning up to do, but my heart goes out to the people at Mandora, Wallal and Eighty Mile Beach, who bore the brunt of the cyclone."

Laurence has since been downgraded to a category three storm, and at 8am on Tuesday was about 125km west-northwest of Telfer and 160km south southeast of Wallal.

The Cyclone Warning Centre's Caroline Crow said Laurence was moving south southeast at 11kmh.

She said the cyclone would continue in a path away from the coast and was expected to weaken to a category one storm over the next 24 hours.

"Yes, the worst appears to be over, but it still has destructive wind gusts of 185km/h near the centre of the cyclone," Ms Crow said.

"We're still looking at heavy rainfall in the eastern Pilbara area, possibly in excess of 200mm near the centre."

A flood warning has been issued for De Grey River Catchment

Heavy rain and gale force winds associated with the cyclone have forced the closure of Newcrest Mining Ltd's Telfer gold mine.

The mine, located 450km east southeast of Port Hedland, stopped production at midnight.

The mine has activated its cyclone response plan and all workers have been restricted to Telfer village until further notice and all non-essential workers have been flown off the site.

Newcrest Mining said production should resume on Wednesday.

- AAP