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Roofs have been torn off by “terrifying” wind gusts as coastal communities in the path of a reformed Tropical Cyclone Narelle brace for impact.

Homes have been flooded by driving rain and people evacuated as Narelle barrelled toward Western Australia’s northwest coast on Friday, unleashing gusts strong enough to shake buildings.

Narelle has intensified into a category four system producing gusts up to 260km/h and is set to make landfall again near Coral Bay in the popular Gascoyne tourist region on Friday afternoon.

The monster system now has WA in its sights after leaving a trail of damage across Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Narelle – a severe storm that already has pummelled communities across far north Queensland and the Northern Territory – is expected to make landfall over Western Australia as a category three cyclone on Friday afternoon.

More than 50 schools across the state are closed and widespread power outages have been reported.

On Friday morning the Western Power Outages website had reported 29 active outages.

The Department of Fire and Emergency Services WA (DFES) reported eight road closures on Friday morning, with a further list of five roads to be closed by 6pm on Friday.

Narelle was set to be the first system to make landfall as a tropical cyclone in three of Australia’s states and territories in more than 20 years – after Cyclone Ingrid in 2005 and Steve in 2000.

In an update just before 7am AWST (10am AEDT) on Friday, the Bureau of Meteorology said the system was 40km west south-west of the town of Exmouth, and had “started to weaken but is expected to remain a category four system for a few more hours”.

Exmouth Shire president Matthew Niikkula said the emergency centre had received a big influx of people after roofs began lifting off houses.

The community had more hours of destructive winds to endure before things calmed down, he said.

Power had been cut, leaving locals in the dark with candles and torches facing a long wait before crews could start restoring services.

Houses had been flooded by horizontal driving rain while wind gusts had shaken buildings.

Ilana Cherny, a senior meteorologist at the BoM, said: “It’s likely to pass very close to the North West Cape as a category four system this morning, and then continue south, likely crossing the coast … in the area between Coral Bay to Cape Cuvier near Carnarvon. This would mean crossing onshore during the afternoon.”

If Narelle remained offshore for longer, it could cross in the evening near Denham, she said.

“As the system is moving so close to the coast, it may weaken a little before moving onshore, so it may cross as a category three system.”

The community in Denham, a tourism town in world heritage-listed Shark Bay, had bunkered down by Friday morning – completing clean ups and sandbagging in the days prior.

“Now we’re in a code red, the streets are deserted… it’s eery.”

The community is waiting for the cyclone to arrive in “full force” by Friday evening, he said.

Stubberfield said there are limited resources available to the small community, which relies on tourism.

“We’ve got extra SES people in town … we’re spread thin, but we do what we can to help,” he said. “Our ambulance service has limited volunteers and WA health has got a paramedic to town.”

The Denham evacuation centre took in three people on Thursday night seeking shelter. All Shark Bay Shire businesses and schools closed on Friday.

“Very destructive wind gusts” up to 250km/h were expected down the west coast to Coral Bay and Cape Cuvier throughout Friday morning, the BoM said.

“While that wind is significant, we’re also looking at heavy rainfall … which can lead to flash flooding,” Cherny said.

The most likely track of Narelle was to the east of Perth on Saturday afternoon, most likely as a tropical low, Cherny said. She added that over Friday and Saturday combined, WA’s southwest including the Perth metro area could see between 50 and 100 millimetres of rain.

“This much rain around Perth is enough to lead to areas of flash flooding,” Cherny said. A flood watch stretches from Exmouth in the state’s north-west to Perth’s Swan River.

Carmen Gerrard, resident of Dawesville, an hour south of Perth, says she hadn’t experienced many effects as of Friday morning.

“It’s cloudy here at the moment, small thunderstorm yesterday afternoon, not even any wind… we are supposed to get rain over the weekend” she said. “It’s mostly going to effect those further up north.”

Narelle was forecast to move off the WA south coast into the Southern Ocean overnight on Saturday, with flooding effects and clean up efforts expected to last into next week.

Speaking about the storm’s impacts, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said on Friday morning that the federal government “stands ready to assist state and territory governments but also local government at this time”.

The massive storm hit far north Queensland as a “high-end” category four cyclone last week, before reaching the Northern Territory as a category three storm last Saturday and then continuing all the way west to the Indian Ocean.