Pardoo set to face off with Rusty Red alerts have been issued in WA as tropical cyclone Rusty intensifies to a category four. THE tiny community of Pardoo is set to feel the full force of Severe Tropical Cyclone Rusty, which is set to cross the West Australian coastline on Wednesday afternoon. The massive category-four system tracked east away from Port Hedland on Wednesday, bringing 230km/h winds, floods and a huge storm tide. That put it on a path towards Pardoo, around 120km east of Port Hedland and 121km north of Marble Bar. Residents, who had already been under red alert lockdown for more than 24 hours, have been told they may have to stay sheltered until at least Friday, with floods and winds set to leave a trail of destruction across the Pilbara. The Facebook page of Pardoo Station said there had been some slight damage, but they were braced for more. "We are all holed up in the Homestead where the walls are so thick that if you closed the curtains you wouldn't even know it was going on!" said a post. Have lost the roof to our car port and water damage to another building so far, hoping it doesn't reach a Cat 5! Figures from NASA satellites tracking the monster storm make for frightening reading, with their Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument showing thunderstorms with cloud-top temperatures colder than minus 52 degrees Celsius surrounding the eye of the storm. A 3D image of Rusty's rainfall and cloud heights created at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland showed the tops of some of the towering thunderstorms in Rusty's eye reaching heights of more than 12km. Neil Bennett from the Bureau of Meteorology said the eye was just about to reach the coast, but the storm was still creeping over land at about 5km/h - meaning fierce gales and torrential rain were likely to last for hours. Flood alerts were also still in place for inland areas including Marble Bar and Nullagine.