This great-great-grandfather has lived through 27 tropical cyclones but Ilsa has him worried

Arnold Carter has lived in Port Hedland for 63 years, where he worked as an accountant in the iron ore industry.

The great-great-grandfather has lived through 27 cyclones and says not one of them has been the same as the other.

”You always feel a little anxiety – first of all you don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said.

Residents between Port Hedland and Pardoo Roadhouse are preparing to hunker down ahead of an expected red alert this afternoon, which will mean it’s too late to leave and they must ride out the storm.

“I’m a bit concerned about this one, about where it’s going to come across – I do think it will be Pardoo and Pardoo is only about 80km away,” Carter said.

“We’ll get the outside of it.

“We’ll get some (wind) and we’ll get a lot of rain.”

But Carter, who is a tropical cyclone veteran, has been preparing for Ilsa’s landfall for days.

He said the key to getting through the storm is being prepared well in advance.

”Make sure food is there, make sure you’ve got water, make sure your car’s all ready to go,” he said.

“They’re the basic things you do in the last two or three days.”

Carter and his family have stocked up with seven days worth of food and water supplies to weather the storm.

“You got to remember once the cyclone’s gone you won’t be able to go shopping, so you’ve got to have your seven days,” he said.

As Carter and his family bunker down, their pet pug Razor will join them – although he isn’t too fond of a storm.

“The only thing about Razor, soon as the thunder starts, Razor starts barking and when he starts barking it sounds like there’s a cyclone in the house,” Carter said.

Emergency services in Western Australia’s north said communities in coastal areas should already be “hunkered down to ride this one out” while communities inland are finalising their preparations.

“We do not want to see anybody outside, outside of structures, once the red alert is put on,” DFES commissioner Darren Klemm said.

“Category 5 cyclones are incredibly dangerous, wind gusts in excess of 250km/h, that’s going to cause a heap of damage to trees and vegetation.”