Darwin River residents say they have ‘lost everything’ in flooding that struck without warning

About 20 properties in Darwin’s rural area have reportedly been severely damaged by flooding, with some residents reporting they have “lost everything”, and one woman with four children having to be rescued from the roof of their home.

Resident Jake Elsgood said floodwater in the Darwin River area, about 60 kilometres south of Darwin, had risen so quickly on Monday morning, there was no time to prepare.

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“It was dramatic how fast it all came,” he said. 

“I tried to move some cars out of the way, put them in the driveway and stuff. Before I knew it, they were floating in the yard.”

Mr Elsgood, his wife Jasmine, who is six months pregnant, and their two-year-old daughter Harley, became trapped on the property where they rent a donga.

“We called emergency services, we waited for four-and-a-half hours for a call back, and our neighbour actually swum in and swum us out,” he said.

“There was all sorts of stuff — spiders, centipedes, everything — trying to get to high ground, so you’re getting bitten from everything while you’re trying to cross the water.”

He said the whole ordeal was “crazy”. 

“Everyone’s pretty mixed up and distraught,” he said.

Jasmine Elsgood, right, waded through crocodile-inhabited floodwaters while six months pregnant, along with her two-year-old daughter Harley.

  (ABC News: Courtney Barrett Peters)

“Like, my daughter hasn’t really been eating or anything. My wife’s a mess. It’s just crazy to see her whole life get swept away in an instant.

“We just got absolutely no warning, no notice.”

Matthew South, who owns the Darwin River property where Mr Elsgood lives with his family, wasn’t home at the time, and said he couldn’t reach them.

“All the waters obviously come out of Darwin River and Darwin River has crocodiles in it,” he said. 

Matthew South assesses the damage at his Darwin River home. (ABC News: Courtney Barrett Peters)

“So once there’s this much water laying around, you don’t know where the crocodiles will be.”

Mr South said his house and property were badly damaged.

“It’s pretty bad … There was still knee-deep water through the entire house,” he said.

“Fridges were floating in the lounge room.”

Flooding has sent fridges floating in Matthew South’s house.  (Supplied: Matthew South)

Judging from the water line inside his home, Mr South estimated the water had reached more than half a metre.

But he said some of his neighbours had suffered worse damage, including one woman and her four children who had to be saved from the roof of their home.

“That would have been pretty scary for them,” he said.

“I’ve seen some aerial footage from a helicopter, and [one] house looked quite bad … it looked like the water was pushing up to the eaves of the house.”

Jake Elsegood says residents were shocked at how fast the floodwaters rose.  (Supplied: Matthew South)

Mr Elsgood said all that was left of his belongings was debris.

“We don’t have any insurance or any way to claim anything, so we’ve, yeah, we’ve lost absolutely everything,” he said.

“We’ve got a fence sort of surrounding our property and there was debris floating from upstream, like all sorts of stuff — you name it, couches, bloody cars, tyres, everything just coming through and just smashing stuff, just making way.”

Mr Elsgood said the flood had happened on his daughter’s birthday.

“She’s got all the new birthday presents — they’re all gone,” he said.

“Everything’s gone. It’s very sad for her.”

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Incident Controller Acting Commander Emma Carter said she was satisfied adequate warning was given to residents and authorities about the potential for flooding at Darwin River.

“My understanding is that there was a flood alert for that area as well as severe storm warnings alerted across Secure NT and all of our Facebook media outlets as well as ABC.”

SecureNT emergency contact numbers:Emergency — police, ambulance and fire: 000Police assistance: 131 444Power and Water: 1800 245 090 or click here for the live outage trackerStorm assistance: 132 500

“That information was provided as it came in through the Bureau [of Meteorology].”

Acting Commander Carter said some Darwin River residents who needed assistance did not contact emergency services and were assisted by other community members.

“With the Darwin River residents, not all of them actually contacted any emergency services or required assistance.”

Much of Matthew South’s backyard remains flooded.  (ABC News: Courtney Barrett Peters)

The incident comes on the back of widespread flooding across the Northern Territory, including at Katherine, Beswick and Daly River.

Pump station back up and running

Meanwhile, residents in Greater Darwin residents have been asked to minimise their water use and boil water following flash flooding that overwhelmed pumping equipment at Darwin River Dam.

Boil water alert, restrictions for Darwin

A boil water alert has been issued and tap pressure will be reduced amid flooding at Darwin River Dam.

Infrastructure Minister Bill Yan took to social media last night to say operations at the pump station for Darwin River Dam had started again.

“I’m on site at the Darwin River Dam and the backup generator is fired up and the pump is operating,” Mr Yan said.

“There’s more work to do but we’re making good progress.

“Water restrictions still apply and keep boiling your water.”

In a statement on Wednesday morning, Power and Water Corporation (PWC) said efforts to “restore water supply are tracking well”.

“Our crews have worked tirelessly overnight to achieve adequate water supply levels for the Greater Darwin network,” the statement read.

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“This morning steady levels of supply from Darwin River Dam are being achieved following repairs to a major pump.

“We still have significant work to do over coming days to achieve permanent repairs.”

The PWC spokesperson added that the organisation was still urging residents to continue using water “for essential purposes only”.