More rain could see river levels rise even further, threatening remote NT communities, while the clean-up has started in Katherine and businesses reopen.

Shenagh Gamble from the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said a “line of storms” had moved over Mataranka and Katherine overnight, dumping rainfall totals of more than 100 millimetres.

A vehicle driving slowly over a flooded road.

Overnight rains caused water levels to rise in Katherine. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)

“On an ordinary week or an ordinary evening, that rainfall total would not cause significant flooding, but it has resulted in some upgrades to some of our warnings,” she said.

“Any river, creek, lagoon, billabong, any waterway is going to be very, very responsive to heavy falls that can occur.”

Riverine flooding has continued to threaten the remote community of Beswick, also known as Wugularr and home to roughly 540 people.

The Waterhouse River was holding steady just below the major flood level of 8.7 metres on Tuesday afternoon, with the Beswick Bridge more than 2 metres underwater.

A sign for a river is barely visible under floodwaters.

SecureNT says until flood impact assessments are completed it is not safe for Beswick residents to return home. (Facebook: SecureNT)

But the BOM said with further rain forecast, the river could rise further and reach the major flood level on Tuesday evening. 

“It is now slowly dropping away there at Beswick, but again with additional rainfall, we could expect renewed rises,” Ms Gamble said.

Residents have not been evacuated, but many are sheltering on higher ground and have been offered the option of staying at a school or community hall in the nearby town of Mataranka.

Beswick Elder Peter Lindsay told ABC Radio Darwin the community hoped to be in the clear soon, but said the latest river rise “doesn’t look really good for us”. 

Mr Lindsay said the main concern for residents was access to drinking water, but supplies were expected to reach Beswick in the coming days. 

“We’re running out of water supply, but … I think the products are coming in tomorrow or something like that,” he said.

He praised local police officers for supporting the community and stopping kids from swimming, as the presence of crocodiles below the surface remains an ongoing flood concern.

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BOM said Adelaide River — a town of about 300 people located two hours north-west of Katherine — had swollen to 10.4 metres on Tuesday afternoon and predicted it would continue to rise.

“We expect minor flooding is possible during this afternoon,” Ms Gamble said.

BOM said major flooding was continuing south of Adelaide River, in the town of Nauiyu — or Daly River — where the flood threat triggered emergency evacuations over the weekend, for the second time this year.

Ms Gamble said Daly River would “continue rising throughout this week” as BOM predicted rains would continue feeding into upstream locations.

Floodwaters at Daly River Police Station had risen to almost 15 metres on Monday evening, but a technical issue has prevented the weather bureau from getting an updated reading since 8:45pm last night.

“River level and rainfall gauge data is temporarily unavailable between Beeboom Crossing and Daly River Police Station, along the Daly River in the Northern Territory, due to a communications outage,” BOM said in a statement to the ABC.

“The river gauge equipment is owned and managed by the NT government and communications equipment by Telstra, who are working to restore communications as a priority.”

BOM said ongoing flooding was hampering those efforts, but the bureau will continue using “upstream river gauges, rainfall gauges and other observing systems” including satellites and radars to ensure flood warnings and advice remain up-to-date.

Brown water spills across streets in a small community, shown from above.

Daly River was evacuated over the weekend due to flooding. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)

Acting Police Commissioner Travis Wurst said most of the homes in Nauiyu had been impacted and authorities expected floodwaters “to take quite a while” to recede.

ABC News Breakfast presenter and meteorologist Nate Byrne said a tropical low was “very active” over the Top End, bringing more heavy falls on Tuesday and into the week. 

“We will start to see [the rainfall] spreading southwards once again … and that’s going to bring a renewed risk of riverine rises that are already soaking and already flooded,” he said.

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Ms Gamble said the Top End trough was persisting, “but the more central area of the low pressure system is moving slowly south-west and will eventually move out of our area”.

She said “widespread rainfall totals of around 20 to 40 millimetres” were possible today.

“Heavier rainfall totals, above 100 millimetres are possible, and that kind of rain — especially in a short amount of time — can definitely result in localised and flash flooding,” Ms Gamble said.

Katherine starts flood clean-up

BOM said waterways around Katherine could flood to “moderate or major” levels today, as a result of the ongoing wet weather.

“Importantly, we saw the warning for the Katherine River Bridge downgraded yesterday evening to a minor flood warning — however, with that line of storms that came through, we’ve seen that brought back up,” Ms Gamble said.

Katherine River rose to its highest level in 28 years over the weekend, marking the town’s worst flooding since 1998. 

On Tuesday afternoon, Power and Water Corporation (PWC) said 344 properties in Katherine were still without power.

PWC reminded flood-affected Territorians that properties needed a certificate of compliance, completed by a qualified electrician, before power could be restored.

“Some assets remain inaccessible and under floodwaters, so full restoration could take several days as floodwaters are receding slowly,” PWC said in a statement. 

The river, as seen from the banks, with a heightened water level.

The Katherine River is subsiding but remains swollen. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)

Katherine’s supermarket — the only one for hundreds of kilometres — is back open and the main bridge, north of town, is open to all traffic.

Brogan Hanrahan said things have been “absolutely hectic” today at her local cafe.

Other Katherine businesses have also started reopening, and Ms Hanrahan said things have been “absolutely hectic” today at Maiden’s Lane.

“Bit of a mad scramble to get here and open, but we are open as of this morning — hopefully it can stay like that,” she said.

Some locals had become “quite desperate” to grab their regular coffee orders, she said, so it was great to touch-base with those customers again.

Six staff members working behind the counter at a cafe.

The Katherine cafe has been busy today. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)

“Katherine has a great community spirit,” she said.

Ms Hanrahan said she was caught “totally off-guard” when calls started coming in and offering donations to the cafe, some generous donors based as far away from the town as Timber Creek.

“Everybody’s looking for everybody at the moment, which is just such a lovely thing to see,” she said.

Roads and supplies impacted

On Monday, NT police said about three tonnes of goods, carried on two trains travelling to Darwin, had been redirected back towards Katherine to support residents.

But Acting Commissioner Wurst said recent rainfall had “reduced some of that water recession” that had started in Katherine, causing some roads “to delaminate and become damaged” — particularly south and just north of the town.

Floodwater swirls down a drain in Katherine

Flood levels in Katherine are now sitting at just under 16.5 metres. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)

“That has impacted on the ability for traffic to flow freely [as] there are some road closures in place,” he said.

“There are permits being issued for critical goods and emergency vehicles to move in and out of Katherine.”

He said a truck with supplies would be travelling from Darwin this afternoon, with hopes it could pass through the damaged roads north of Katherine.

Parts of a road have been ripped up, floodwaters are visible nearby.

Some roads in and around Katherine have been damaged by flooding. (Facebook: Steve Edginton)

“If it cannot, then we will unload that particular truck and we’ll move those items into Katherine, one by one effectively,” Acting Commissioner Wurst said.

“That food and those critical goods are for the shelters and also for the supermarkets.”

With some Top End roads still submerged underwater, Acting Commissioner Wurst reminded locals: “If it’s flooded, forget it”.

“Our emergency services are working extremely hard across the whole of the Top End to keep everybody safe,” he said. 

“If you are silly enough to go into the water and you draw us away from what we should be doing … then that is on you; please be more careful, be more considerate.”

Further financial assistance announced

The NT government, in coordination with the federal government, announced additional financial support to help displaced Katherine residents cover temporary accommodation costs.

The assistance payment, which will be means-tested, will be capped at $1,160 per family. 

This support builds on assistance announced over the weekend, which offered immediate relief payments of up to $611 per adult and $309 per child — capped at $1,537 per family — as well as a re-establishment payment of $8,843 to replace essential household items.

Flooding surrounds a regional caravan park.

This caravan park was among the Katherine businesses hit by flooding. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)

Disaster relief payments for the surrounding remote communities are yet to be announced as the flood threat remains ongoing, but Palumpa and Naiyu evacuees are coping well in their Darwin shelters. 

Red Cross Director of Response, Collin Sivalingum, said the flood evacuees — staying at Marrara’s indoor stadium and Foskey Pavilion at the showgrounds — were anxious to get home, but crews in Darwin had been making sure they were looked after.

He said the “very resilient” group of evacuees had been looking after each other too.