Rivers at major flood levels<\/p>\n
The Katherine River peaked at 19.2m overnight, submerging homes and businesses, and inundating the Katherine Bridge deck.<\/p>\n
At least 90 homes lost power, and Katherine Hospital was evacuated over the weekend.<\/p>\n
The river has begun to recede but remains above the major flood level of 17.5m, marking the town\u2019s worst flooding since 1998.<\/p>\n
The Daly River is also under significant threat. Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Jude Scott said daily readings reached 14.4m overnight and are expected to continue rising towards 15m.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Daly River is a huge river holding enormous volumes of water, so it will continue to slowly rise during the next week,\u201d Scott said, adding it could remain at major flood level into next weekend.<\/p>\n
While monsoon showers are shifting towards the northwest coast, Scott warned that isolated rainfall totals could still exceed 100mm, keeping river levels high even without further major rises.<\/p>\n
Communities evacuated<\/p>\n
Many smaller communities have faced rapid evacuations. In Palumpa, about 200 residents were flown after floodwaters cut off lower-lying homes, with 11 people rescued by helicopter overnight.<\/p>\n
Daly River residents are now sheltering in Darwin\u2019s Foskey Pavilion for the second time this year, after returning home only two weeks ago from the previous flood.<\/p>\n
NT incident controller Commander Shaun Gill described the operations as \u201cincredibly difficult\u201d, with multiple moving parts.<\/p>\n
\u201cHelping evacuate those remaining Territorians is the highest priority,\u201d Mr Gill said.<\/p>\n
In Jilkminggan, 100 people were evacuated because of flood risk, while about 60 others self-evacuated with police assistance to nearby Mataranka.<\/p>\n
Moderate flooding also hit Beswick, though most homes there remain safe on higher ground.<\/p>\n
Croc warning<\/p>\n
Authorities continue to warn of dangerous conditions, particularly fast-flowing rivers and crocodiles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are crocs absolutely everywhere \u2026 Please don\u2019t go in the water,\u201d Mr Gill said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe message is quite clear. Don\u2019t swim in the water for two reasons. It\u2019s because it\u2019s a fast-flowing river, and also this is when crocs are most active.\u201d<\/p>\n
Disaster relief for Katherine residents<\/p>\n
Residents in Katherine will be eligible for immediate disaster assistance payments, with support including $611 per adult and $309 per child, capped at $1537 per family.<\/p>\n
A re-establishment assistance fund of up to $8847 will also be available for households needing to replace furniture, white goods, bedding, and other items damaged by floodwaters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a really difficult, stressful and heartbreaking time for that community,\u201d Ms Finocchiaro said.<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rivers at major flood levels The Katherine River peaked at 19.2m overnight, submerging homes and businesses, and inundating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[95,22509,40750,8278,10837,172922,8452,9060,15974,36662,40488,3685,19876,3092,93049,42,78,165169,3025,43,7977,73394,3512,6695,530,6739,66425,1321,2848,9636,44561,103847,2742,40,38,41,39,102],"class_list":{"0":"post-319624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-and","9":"tag-areas","10":"tag-communities","11":"tag-conditions","12":"tag-crocs","13":"tag-daly","14":"tag-dangerous","15":"tag-decades","16":"tag-emergency","17":"tag-evacuate","18":"tag-evacuated","19":"tag-events","20":"tag-flooding","21":"tag-floods","22":"tag-grappling","23":"tag-headlines","24":"tag-in","25":"tag-katherine","26":"tag-most","27":"tag-news","28":"tag-northern","29":"tag-persist","30":"tag-racing","31":"tag-regions","32":"tag-residents","33":"tag-river","34":"tag-rivers","35":"tag-services","36":"tag-severe","37":"tag-spotted","38":"tag-swell","39":"tag-territory","40":"tag-thousands","41":"tag-top-news","42":"tag-top-stories","43":"tag-topnews","44":"tag-topstories","45":"tag-with"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}