Myatt, One Mile community members return home after flood evacuations
Myatt and One Mile residents can return home after their communities were evacuated during a “one-in-50-year” flooding event. See the damage here.
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Residents of remote communities near Timber Creek have returned home as the Territory’s emergency declaration was lifted on Saturday.
The town and surrounding communities were inundated with floodwater in a “one-in-50-year” event when ex-Tropical Cyclone Ellie dumped heavy rain across the NT.
People at nearby outstations Myatt and One Mile were forced from their homes as they became inundated with floodwater levels many Timber Creek residents had never experienced before.
About 30 residents were housed at the Bradshaw training base after sleeping rough on Timber Creek’s basketball court for days.
The area was hit with almost 250mm of rain as ex-Tropical Cyclone Ellie, which made landfall as a category one cyclone last week, moved across the Top End.
Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said most of the affected homes in One Mile and Myatt could now be reoccupied as a recovery phase in Timber Creek began.
She said a number of senior government officials, a welfare support crew including the Red Cross and contractors had been on the ground in Timber Creek and surrounding communities, and had deemed the homes and community infrastructure safe.
“I am heartened by the community resilience and actions of many local residents who acted swiftly, together with our first responders, to ensure everyone could be safely accommodated while emergency repairs were undertaken,” Ms Fyles said.
Ms Fyles said food and fuel had been supplied to the communities, with more on the way.
“The Territory Government will continue to monitor the situation, and respond when needed,” she said.
“Thank you to all our emergency service and community members for all your hard work.”
‘They can’t go back home’: Communities evacuated after flooding
Residents of remote communities near the tiny Territory town of Timber Creek have been moved to a defence force training facility after the town was evacuated following a “one-in-50-year” flooding event.
The area was hit with almost 250mm of rain on Friday and Saturday as ex-Tropical Cyclone Ellie, which made landfall as a category one cyclone on Thursday night, moved across the Top End.
People at nearby outstations Myatt and One Mile were forced from their homes as they became inundated with floodwater levels many Timber Creek residents had never experienced before.
About 30 community members took shelter at the town’s basketball court, where they slept rough for days before being moved to the nearby Bradshaw training base on Monday.
Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said an assessment team was on the ground in the Victoria Hwy town to determine the extent of the damage, as well as welfare agencies to provide support.
“It’s been a difficult couple of days getting them out there,” she said.
“We’ll start to get more information through … and people are certainly pleased to see support coming in.”
Additional emergency services personnel were initially unable to reach the town after the rains due to the flooding on major thoroughfares and wild weather.
However, additional police and emergency services have now been deployed.
Acting Police Commissioner Murray Smallpage said he believed the emergency response to the generational flooding event was appropriate.
“As we progress we’ll have time to reflect on the bravery of a great number of people, which to me strikes the very heart of what a Territorian is,” he said.
“It was an extraordinary event.
“We will be conducting a full debrief at the end of the event to see what things we could have done better.
“But many of the things are beyond control … it’s mother nature at its most difficult.”
Mr Smallpage, who has been granted special powers under the Territory Emergency Management Act, said the planning put in place “did take effect” but could not specify what those planning measures were.
“There was no pre-warning that you’re going to get an extraordinary rainfall event in your locality.
“The advice I had all along was there was no emergency in terms of imminent risk of life.”
Mr Smallpage said there was no time frame on when residents in nearby communities could return home, nor when roads surrounding Timber Creek would be repaired.
Weather warnings remained in place across the Territory as ex-Tropical Cyclone Ellie moved back towards the Top End.
The Bureau of Meteorology said the tropical low, which made landfall as a category one cyclone on Thursday night, was moving across the Barkly region on Tuesday morning and was expected to intensify over the Gregory and Tanami before moving towards the Kimberley in Western Australia later in the week.
The system is expected to track close to Tennant Creek on Wednesday morning.
A severe weather warning remained in place for the Barkly region, with six-hourly rainfall totals forecast between 70mm and 100mm, while as much as 200mm could fall in a 24-hour period.
Bureau senior forecaster Sally Cutter said as the low moves northwest, it would bring with it monsoonal conditions.
“We’re also going to see the monsoon trough reinvigorate,” Ms Cutter said.
“And that’s going to see the weather pick up across the Top End.”
She said the monsoonal trough would mean more rain and strong winds towards the west coast of the Territory.
“That will continue through to at least the end of the week,” she said.
Victoria Daly Regional Council Mayor Brian Pedwell said many of the residents still had no access to clean water.
“They can’t go back home due to these issues,” he said.
“One, they can’t clean their house. Two, they have no drinking water and three, they can’t flush their toilets.”
He said the outstations had “copped the brunt” of the flooding that hit the Timber Creek area.
“No one’s got back to me about the food for Timber Creek and what they’re going to do about it,” he said on Monday.
Mr Pedwell said evacuated community members had lost their clothes and bedding when they were forced to leave their home.
Timber Creek Hotel owner Fiona McDonald said about nine hotel rooms and her business’ staff quarters were initially unusable after flooding swept through the town but most rooms were now back up and running.
“Our staff house got annihilated,” she said.
“We haven’t spent a lot of time in the worst hit rooms.
“There was a lot of debris.”
She hoped to have insurance assessors out as soon as possible to estimate the damage bill.
Roads around Timber Creek, including bridges, suffered “significant damage”, Ms McDonald said.
“Some of the road damage is crazy,” she said.
She was concerned about the welfare of evacuated residents if more emergency services support was not available soon.
“They’ll be running out of supplies,” she said.
Ms McDonald said it was lucky the floodwaters had receded as quickly as they rose.
“If it was staying for days it could have been very bad,” she said.
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