Herbert residents clean up after storms ‘worse than Cyclone Marcus’

A clean-up is underway after a localised storm ‘worse than Cyclone Marcus’ tore through Darwin’s rural areas.

Mango growers are in a race against hungry geese after a “cyclonic” storm turned farms into a fruit smoothie.

Herbert resident Kath Johnson said the Saturday night storm caused damage to trees, power and internet to fail and mango missiles to be caught up in the winds.

“The wind was cyclonic and the thunder and lightning was right on top of us,” Ms Johnson said.

“The mangoes were flying out of the trees,” she said.

Ms Johnson said the mess on Sunday morning was “crazy”, with hundreds of fallen mangoes across the two hectare Pioneer Dr property.

“The ground was covered with mangoes so we mainly picked them up in a wheelbarrow,” she said.

Herbert residents reported damage to their properties following a gusty storm in Darwin's rural areas on Saturday November 5.

“We have had friends come and take some.

“We’ve had a few trees needing to be cut down.”

Ms Johnson said it was now a race against the geese to collect all the mangoes.

“All in all it’s not as bad as others,” she said.

“We were pretty lucky compared to others though”

“Some are saying it was worse than Cyclone Marcus.”

Herbert residents reported damage to their properties following a gusty storm in Darwin's rural areas on Saturday November 5.

A neighbour said two “massive” gum trees were felled by the winds, with one fallen trunk blocking her driveway.

The Bureau of Meteorology recorded wind gusts of up to 76km/h at Middle Point, around 25km away from Herbert.

Metrologist Sally Cutter said the storm formed in the Batchelor area and moved its way northwards to Darwin.

Herbert residents reported damage to their properties following a gusty storm in Darwin's rural areas on Saturday November 5.

“It’s a gusty storm … but it’s not at the damaging wind threshold,” Ms Cutter said.

For all its theatrics of winds, lighting and thunder, Ms Cutter said there was very little actual rainfall, with just 3mm falling in both Batchelor and Kangaroo Flats.

“We do see these gusty storms at this time of year,” she said.

Ms Cutter said these types of storms had localised intensities at the point where the atmospheric wind gust hit the earth.

“(The gust) comes from right up in the atmosphere and comes down,” she said.

“It hits the ground and it has to do somewhere, so it just goes out.”