Police express “incredible frustration” over people boating and tubing on flooded Todd River

POLICE  have expressed their “incredible frustration” at receiving continued reports of people boating and tubing on the swollen Todd River in Alice Springs, despite a similar death.

Todd River in Flood. At the Swartz Crescent Causeway locals take in the power of the Todd River coming down. Despite the PFES advising not to do so, thrill seekers still tempted to take to the river on rubber rafts from KMart. At the same time this picture was taken, a 24 year-old local man drowned in the rapids north of the town at Wigglies Waterhole. Picts by Barry Skipsey

POLICE  have expressed their “incredible frustration” at receiving continued reports of people boating and tubing on the swollen Todd River in Alice Springs, despite the death of a man in similar circumstances just two days ago.

Musician Rowley Hill, 24, drowned while swimming in the flooded river on Thursday. Alice Springs has been hit with the worst deluge since the Todd River flooded the town’s centre in 1988.

Nearly 160mm of rainfall was recorded at the town’s airport over four days to 9am yesterday. Darwin’s Bureau of Meteorology has described the rainfall as “a once in a decade” event.

Police were deployed to a section of the river behind Pioneer Park around 5pm yesterday, where children were believed to be riding the dangerous stream on an inflatable raft.

The NT News attended the location, and photographed two men, one with beer and ciggie in hand, at the banks of the river with a raft and young child in tow.

READ:FRIENDS FAREWELL TODD RIVER DROWNING VICTIM

Alice Springs Watch Commander Phil Emmett said “words can’t describe the frustration associated with having to manage these situations”.

“It is extraordinary,” Acting Senior Sergeant Emmett said. “Do not swim in the swollen river and stay out of floodwaters.”

Police are also continuing their search for the owner of a Toyota Rav 4 which has been parked at the water-inundated­ tourist spot of Standley Chasm, 50km from Alice Springs, for more than two days.

“It is unclear if the car has been left at Standley Chasm because of the wet weather or breakdown,” he said.

Police have been attempting to reach the car’s registered owner, Laura Banner of Darwin, but repeated attempts have been unsuccessful. “Police would like to ascertain whether or not she is still the owner of the car.”

The desert storm has seen roads flooded, power outages, damage to infrastructure and a huge clean-up effort waiting for local shop owners once the rain subsides. Emergency services and residents were last night bracing for continued rainfall into today, filling sandbags and preparing homes.

NTES director Andrew Warton said community members had chipped in to assist volunteers in their work trying to mitigate the town from possible flooding.

“One of the things the boys told me was that there were an incredible number of members of the public that came along and actually supported NTES while they were doing their work,” Mr Warton said.

“We had members of the public filling sandbags and making cups of tea for the emergency services personnel – it was unequivocally a community response.”

Mount Nancy resident and local Aboriginal leader Barbara Shaw said the rains had lead to overcrowding in town camp houses, due to bush families stranded in town seeking shelter. “There’ve been families trying to head back to Hermannsburg but since the water’s come up, they’ve had to stay with families here,” Ms Shaw said.

One of the town’s only homeless shelters, the Salvation Army hostel in Eastside, has also received an influx of requests for emergency accommodation since the heavy rains began.

A spokesman for the hostel said they had been forced to turn people away this weekend, due to a lack of beds.

Locals in tiny Kulgera, 275km south of Alice Springs, say parts of the town are under more than a metre of water.

Roadhouse operator Chris Le Page said his accommodation has been full with stranded tourists because all roads out of the town were closed.

“The motel rooms are up off the ground, so people stayed dry, but the water was lapping at the doors,” he said.

“(Thursday) was a long night; I had to wake up at 2am to cut the power … we just had to wait until the morning to see how much damage was done.”

The waters swept several of the roadhouse fridges away – one ended up on the yard of the police station.

“We know there’s more rain, and I don’t think any amount of sandbagging will help, so we’re just going to have to wait it out and then tally the costs,” Mr Le Page said.