Floodwaters have spilled inside “quite a number of homes” in the remote Northern Territory town of Daly River, authorities say, with still-rising water levels delaying the return home for evacuated locals.
Almost 300 residents of the Daly River community, located 220 kilometres south-west of Darwin, were evacuated to the NT capital last Wednesday, with only a handful remaining behind.
The river reached the 14-metre major flood level earlier this week and was forecast to peak at 14.1m, but has since risen slightly above that level. Â
The road to Daly River on February 5. / The same road to Daly River on February 11.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM)’s Jude Scott said river levels at the Daly River community were sitting at 14.2m as of Wednesday afternoon, and were “expected to peak later today at around 14.3m”.
“The Daly River will then start to slowly recede in the coming days, and it’s likely to first drop below the major [flood] level overnight tomorrow, on Thursday,” she said.
“The river height is expected to remain above the moderate flood level, which is 13.1m, until early next week.”
Jude Scott says BOM predicts the river height to fall below the major flood level on Thursday. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)
Incident controller Gavin Kennedy said water levels at the Daly River community had continued “to slowly rise” for days, linking the latest rise to storms overnight.
He said more homes were now being impacted by flooding, following reports of minor water damage to three homes in recent days,
“There are now quite a number of houses where water is ankle-deep, going through the houses,” he said.
While he did not provide exact figures, the incident controller said the number of impacted homes was expected to grow “into double figures” by the end of Wednesday.
The Daly River flooding has impacted a number of buildings and homes. (Supplied: SecureNT)
Superintendent Kennedy said amid the flooding, most of the community’s infrastructure had become “their own individual islands, with all the yards being affected by floodwaters”.
“The airstrip itself is almost completely covered by water now, there’s a sliver of airstrip that can be made out,” he said.
“The majority of the roads are covered within the Daly River community, and the Daly River police station remains completely isolated but still operational.”
He said he was yet to see any evidence of water levels starting to recede.
“We were hopeful overnight, however an overnight thunderstorm — after midnight — in the lower catchment contributed to dashing our hopes,” he said.
Gavin Kennedy says sewerage and electricity remain operational in Daly River. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)
When can Daly River evacuees return home?
A week after most Daly River residents were evacuated  to Darwin, Superintendent Kennedy said there was “no set date” for their expected return home.
The incident controller said water levels would need to recede, and every building would then need to be assessed for damage, before residents could return, which he said “adds time and adds resources” to recovery efforts.
“We’d like to get to a point where there’s receding levels, we all want that for everyone — particularly the people at Foskey Pavilion [in Darwin],” Superintendent Kennedy said.
Daly River has been flooding for days, with overnight storms contributing further to the swollen catchment. (Supplied: SecureNT)
He said the good news was that utilities at Daly River were still “within the thresholds” for safe operation.
“In spite of the rises overnight, we still don’t anticipate switching off the power or the sewerage,” Mr Kennedy said.
“That is a really good thing for everyone, because switching those off adds more complications and time for getting those people back into community.”
Authorities said emergency relief payments to residents would start from Thursday, but added most of that financial assistance would not be available until locals “return to their communities and business as usual commences down there”.