{"id":528211,"date":"2026-03-09T05:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T05:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/528211\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T05:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T05:43:09","slug":"warning-amid-devastating-flooding-in-nt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/528211\/","title":{"rendered":"Warning amid devastating flooding in NT"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\ufeffHundreds of people have been evacuated as a deluge caused the Katherine River to flood.<\/p>\n<p>It peaked at 19.2 metres, the highest point since 1998 when flooding devastated the area.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/0c3a9b7f-73d0-49f8-af2a-19e1e64309b5.png\"   alt=\"Flooding in Katherine posted by MP Jo Hersey\"\/>Three local communities were evacuated, as well as Katherine Hospital. (Facebook)<\/p>\n<p>Three local communities were evacuated, as well as Katherine Hospital.<\/p>\n<p>Aircraft and helicopters were involved in evacuations from Palumpa, Jilkminggan and Nauiyu, with some locals moved to higher ground until they could be rescued.<\/p>\n<p>Shelters have been set up at local schools.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>But as well as floodwaters, the local wildlife could be a hazard.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/41a830f4-820b-4151-ba57-d68d03f19f19.png\"   alt=\"Flooding in Katherine, posted by MP Jo Hersey-Member for Katherine \"\/>Flooding in Katherine, posted by MP Jo Hersey-Member for Katherine  (Facebook)<\/p>\n<p>\ufeff&#8221;We&#8217;ve had independent reports of people swimming in rivers and the like,&#8221; NT incident control acting commander, Shaun Gill, said at a press conference yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My message is quite clear: please do not do that.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;\ufeffEvacuation is difficult as it is. When you go through a rescue that&#8217;s incredibly difficult and puts our frontline people at risk.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are crocs absolutely everywhere. Please don&#8217;t go in the water.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t swim in the water for two reasons: it&#8217;s because it&#8217;s a fast-flowing river, and also this is when crocs are most active.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Emergency warnings are in place for Katherine township, Nitmiluk and Daly River.<\/p>\n<p>Wugularr (Beswick) has been downgraded to a Watch and Act, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/securent.nt.gov.au\/respond\/flooding-big-rivers\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Emergency NT.\">Emergency NT.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Multiple schools are closed and roads cut off.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>Power and water supplies are also affected and patients from Katherine Hospital have been evacuated to Darwin.<\/p>\n<p>Disaster payments are on offer.<\/p>\n<p>There are also several boiled water advisories in place, meaning residents in these areas will not be able to safely drink tap water without first boiling it.<\/p>\n<p>This includes Katherine, Wugularr (Beswick) and Tindal.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>Large parts of central Queensland as well as the Darling Downs and parts of the south-east coast have been warned to brace for locally intense rainfall and flash flooding with six-hourly rainfall totals of between 60 and 150mm overnight and today.<\/p>\n<p>People in the vicinity of Policemans Creek at Rubyvale were urged to move to higher ground immediately and others were warned this morning in an emergency alert by Central Highlands Regional Council warning of an immediate threat to life and property.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\ufeffHundreds of people have been evacuated as a deluge caused the Katherine River to flood. It peaked at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":["post-528211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}