Northern Territory flood evacuees have described the devastation of watching footage of their homes being inundated with water, saying many had lost “everything they worked for”.
Daly River residents have spent more than a month this year sleeping on stretcher beds in a Darwin evacuation centre following the remote Aboriginal community’s worst floods on record.
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Flooding at Daly River, also known as Nauiyu, reached a record height of 16.26 metres last Friday.
The community’s 350 residents were evacuated to Darwin for the second time in as many months, and will now be moved to a new centre in the town of Batchelor, 100 kilometres south of Darwin.
Although Daly River has experienced severe flooding in the past, local resident Salisha Kerr said this was her “first big flood” and she received little warning.
“The week before it all happened, we could see the water was coming in, but there was no indication that it was going to come up so quickly,” she said.
Daly River resident Salisha Kerr has been living at an evacuation centre in Darwin after twice being forced to flee her home due to rising floodwaters. (ABC News: Marcus Kennedy)
While most residents were flown or bussed out of the town, Ms Kerr managed to load her dogs into her car and drive to Darwin, but she said there wasn’t much time to pack or prepare her home.
“When you’re in such a rush, you don’t know what to grab and you’re thinking, ‘oh, no, it’s not going to come that high’, so you’re kind of stacking things up high as possible, just hoping for the best.
“But no one was prepared for how high this water would get.”
Video footage from NT emergency services last week showed houses submerged in water to their roofs.
The remote NT community of Daly River was evacuated due to flooding. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)
Daly River resident James Parry said people at the evacuation centre were distressed when they were shown video footage of most homes submerged in water to their roofs.
“[It brings] tears to your eyes when you see home like that, go under,” he said.
“A lot of people have lost their homes, belongings, everything they’ve worked for.”
Evacuees feeling ‘unsafe’ and ‘targeted’
This was the second time Daly River residents had been evacuated in as many months, with the whole community first brought to Darwin following major flooding at the start of February.
Mr Parry has lived through several devastating natural disasters, including the area’s previous record flood.
In January 1998, the Daly River reached 16.25 metres.
“This time it came with full force and everyone’s lost everything,” the long-time local said.
Earlier this week, more than 500 people were being housed in evacuation centres across Darwin.
Mr Parry, who is staying at the centre at Darwin Showgrounds, said some people from his community felt unsafe and had been subject to racism when they came into town.
Flood evacuees from Daly River have been sheltering at Foskey Pavilion at the Darwin Showground (ABC News: Luisa Santucci)
He said some had been scared to leave the centre following an incident where evacuees were threatened with a samurai sword, and others reported being harassed at the shops.
Mr Parry said he had encouraged others to remove the wristband that indicated they were evacuees from Daly River before they left the centre so they wouldn’t be targeted.
“You’re being unfairly targeted just because you have that wristband on in a moment of need,” he said.
“And they can call you anything, but they could be driving past and just, yeah, saying something at you.”
Incident controller Kirsten Engels said she hadn’t received reports of racism or safety concerns from the evacuees, but that it was “unacceptable”.
NT Incident Controller Kirsten Engels said the reports of racism were concerning. (ABC News: Marcus Kennedy)
“We want people to feel safe … we understand that it’s really distressing to be removed from your home and into an evacuation centre,” she said.
“The teams are doing everything they can to make people feel safe.”
However, Northern Land Council chair Matt Ryan, who has visited the evacuation centre, has labelled the flood victims’ treatment in the Darwin facilities as “appalling”.
“It’s a cash cow for the agencies where the money could have been well spent,” he said.
“If you calculate per agency that are here at [Darwin Showgrounds and Marrara Stadium] … the money could have been well spent in the community, developing better facilities for the community.
Matt Ryan says an evacuation centre needs to be built in the Daly River region. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)
“The Traditional Owners and the leaders should be at the talking table, rather than being disregarded.”
Mr Ryan called on the territory’s minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Steve Edgington, to speak with Traditional Owners and Elders ahead of the move.
He said frequently transferring the communities can “continue to traumatise” those who suffer from the impacts of intergenerational trauma.
“[The government] should be talking to people, the displaced people,” he said.
“We’ve been saying from day one, the community has been saying, build [evacuation centres] closer to home.”
Homecoming still uncertain
With houses still fully submerged in the floodwater and more rain forecast for the area in the coming days, it is uncertain when Daly River residents will be able to return home.
However, Batchelor Institute chief executive Renee Long said they had prepared student accommodation at the facility and made it available for the evacuees for a number of months.
“At the moment, we’re working on the basis that people will be with us up to three months and we can accommodate them for that period of time.”
Meanwhile, residents said the uncertainty of what awaits them at home is daunting.
“It’s overwhelming, thinking that we’re going to go back to nothing,” Ms Kerr said.
“Some things can [be replaced] but the valuable things that we have, photos and stuff like that, they just won’t be replaced.”
In the meantime, she said the community had banded together and were helping each other in the evacuation centre.
“We’re a small community and I know that we’ll pull together and help each other out,” she said.