‘Business as usual’: Darwin largely survives Cyclone Fina
About 19,500 homes and businesses lost power over Saturday night and the early hours of Sunday but no injuries have been recorded, the government said.
The strongest cyclone to hit Darwin in half a century has now strengthened to a category four system and is expected to head further southwest towards the Kimberley coast in Western Australia’s north, the Bureau of Meteorology has warned.
Tropical cyclone Fina hit Darwin late on Saturday and cut power for 19,500 homes and businesses but nobody was injured, the Northern Territory government said on Sunday afternoon.
Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said the Northern Territory “was united and was prepared” for Fina and suffered a “largely minimal” impact. “The warnings have now been reduced and we want Territorians to be going back to their business as usual,” she said.
The category three system strengthened on its southwest approach to Darwin, and then grazed the capital’s coastline, the Bureau of Meteorology said on Sunday morning. It was the strongest tropical cyclone to hit Darwin since the devastating Cyclone Tracy in 1974, which killed 66 people and levelled the city.
Darwin was deluged with about 160mm of rain in the 24 hours to 9am on Sunday but Middle Point, east of the city, received a staggering 429mm over the same period, the bureau reported. Wind gusts topped 100km/h.
The cyclone has now strengthened to a category four system and is expected to move southwest, away from the coastline, and then weaken to a category three before hitting the Kimberley coast in WA, the Bureau of Meteorology’s forecast says.
The NT News reported property damage in Darwin including boats sinking in the harbour, as well as trees being uprooted. “Now obviously there remains … significant debris, trees down and even power lines,” Ms Finocchiaro said. “But Territorians who need to move about for essential reasons such as restocking their fridges, having to take items to dump points and other necessary travel are encouraged to do so safely.”
The Chief Minister said the government had instructed school principals to advise whether it was safe to welcome students on Monday morning. “We’ve had significant damage around properties and of course there are some road closures and we now are moving to flooded roadways and other causeways,” Ms Finocchiaro said.
“But generally speaking I just want to thank Territorians for how well they have co-operated and heeded all of the advice from our officials.”
Wurrumiyanga in the Tiwi Islands off the coast of Darwin sustained the “greatest brunt of Cyclone Fina” with wind speeds of more than 100km/h. Ms Finnochiaro warned that the community was likely to suffer from longer power outages. She said the government had prepared “all of the administrative paperwork” to ask the federal government for assistance from the Australian Defence Force for clean-up if her government deemed it necessary. “We’re still going through all of our assessments so we’ve not made the request but we stand ready should we need it,” she said.
“It’s very normal during times of natural disasters and cyclones that funding is sourced from the federal government for a range of things. One could be for emergency payments to people. It could be for damage to infrastructure and assets and when it’s catastrophic obviously that funding then increases. So there are levels.
“What it requires is the Territory to do the analysis on what those costs look like and then apply to the federal government for funding which is normally apportioned in part, not in full.
So all of our paperwork and our liaison with the federal government is well and truly advanced. We’ve done that early to be ready for if and when we need it and certainly I spoke to the federal minister yesterday morning who reinforced that.”
