Australian Defence Force continues air evacuations from Kalkarindji to Katherine
Authorities are closely monitoring the Territory’s supply chain network as a tropical low continues to damage homes and roads, including main highways. Watch the evacuation efforts.
Northern Territory
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A tropical low that has caused major flooding and displaced more than 600 residents could intensify to a tropical cyclone early next week.
Jude Scott from the Bureau of Meteorology said they were keeping an eye on the system as it continued its path east and into the Gulf of Carpentaria.
“The current advice is that from Monday we’ll move to a low chance of a cyclone forming — and on Tuesday that may increase to a moderate chance,” she said.
A moderate chance puts the threat of a cyclone forming to between 20 and 50 per cent.
Ms Scott said it was hard to know which direction the system would travel.
“At the moment our best forecast insight is that it will remain over water between Sunday and Tuesday,” she said.
It comes as continued heavy rainfall has cut off main roads and brought trains to a screeching halt.
“We’re still experiencing road issues across the Territory — we have got issues on the Stuart Highway, the Vic Highway and the Barkly Highway that we’re keeping an eye on,” Deputy Chief Minister Nicole Manison said.
“There are currently no trains running — we expect them to start running again tomorrow.”
Ms Manison said emergency management teams had been contacted to determine the level of supply chain issues the weather may have caused.
“The advice is that they are very confident they’ve got good supply stores there,” she said.
Up to 600 residents from Dagaragu, Pigeon Hole, Kalkarindji and Palumpa have now been safely relocated as homes were inundated by rising floodwaters from the Victoria River.
Evacuation flights from Kalkarindji to Katherine were completed on Friday morning, with an estimated 200 residents flown out.
The Australian Defence Force has provided three air force aircraft to help with relocating residents.
The Howard Springs quarantine facility is housing about 500 evacuees, with some people choosing to stay in Darwin with family and friends.
A resident helping with the evacuation efforts said between 150-200 people were still waiting to be flown from the Kalkarindji airstrip on Friday morning.
He said many of the houses in town were now underwater.
Overnight the heavy rainfall eased and the water level of the Victoria River has been steadily falling, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
“It’s still very cloudy (in Kalkarindji) but definitely the heavy rain has eased, “ senior forecaster Billy Lynch said.
“We’re not expecting a lot of rainfall and we are not going to see the river rise at all.”
However the tropical low that caused the major flooding around Dagaragu and Pigeon Hole continues to have an impact as it moves east across the Territory.
“What we’ve seen in the last 24 hours is that tropical low moved eastwards across the northern Barkly district and we’ve seen that heavy rain pushed into the Barkly region,” Mr Lunch said.
“So there’s a severe weather warning in place east of Tennant Creek which is probably going to continue into tomorrow and potentially Sunday.”
There is a flood watch in place for the regions of Carpentaria and Barkly districts.
Mr Lynch said people were advised to keep an eye on conditions before setting off on any travel.
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