More than 100 people have been evacuated from the remote Northern Territory community of Borroloola as it faces dangerous record flooding just days after it was lashed by Tropical Cyclone Megan.
The McArthur River at the township was forecast to peak at 18 metres by Thursday afternoon, three metres higher than the previous 2001 flood record, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
The NT police incident controller Sonia Kennon told ABC Darwin that 102 residents were evacuated on Wednesday night. The NT police commissioner, Michael Murphy, said two residential areas in Borroloola home to 350 people, Garuwa and Yanyula, would become inundated with water as the flooding progressed.
Garawa residents were taken across Rocky Creek via boat before being evacuated to Darwin Showground in a Australian Defence Force aircraft on Wednesday.
Around midday the river at McArthur River Mine was at 17.6 metres, and the weather bureau said this was likely to pass downstream through Borroloola during Thursday afternoon and reach between 17.2 metres and 18 metres.
The Northern Territory Emergency Service assistant director, Gemma Bellenger, said evacuations would continue throughout Thursday “as a precautionary measure”.
She told Mix 104.9 those who were evacuated were “a bit worried” but “in good spirits”, with no reports of people becoming stranded or injured overnight.
Murphy said the flooding at Borraloola was “absolutely significant” and “demonstrates the change in environmental conditions we’re facing with changing conditions and increased flood levels.”
“A one-in-a-hundred-year flood is really serious [and] we’re doing everything we can to make sure the residents of Borroloola are safe,” he said.
Barkly MP Steve Edgington said several homes and communities would be inundated, according to flood modelling, but the Borroloola town centre – including the shop and school – would remain above water level.
The federal emergency management minister, Murray Watt, told the ABC on Thursday that roughly 200 people had been evacuated, with a priority on those most medically vulnerable.
Seventy-eight medically vulnerable people had been identified in the community, Murphy told reporters yesterday.
#YourADF received a request from the NT Government to provide assistance to the community of Borroloola impacted by TC Megan. A C-27J Spartan transported a NT Emergency Services Rapid Assessment Team and ADF personnel to assess storm damage to critical infrastructure. pic.twitter.com/kEz23cgqHv
— Joint Operations Command (@hqjoc) March 21, 2024
Watt said emergency officials on the ground would decide whether more evacuations were needed or if people could safely remain at Borroloola.
“We have also approved a request from the Northern Territory government to provide ADF personnel and aircraft to evacuate people from other communities such as Timber Creek, Pigeon Hole, Kalkarindji,” Watt said.
“We expect that will begin later [on Thursday] subject to weather conditions.”
Kennon said the only community currently being evacuated is Borraloola.
“Any plans for any other community to be evacuated [are] in place and ready to go [but] they are not currently required,” she said.
Edgington said flights on Wednesday had been scheduled to depart every 40 minutes until dark, carrying up to 70 people at a time.
Evacuations from Borroloola are continuing today as the latest modelling for the McArthur River now forecasts a peak of up to 18 metres on Friday morning.
Thank you to the #Mabunji Li-Anthawirriyarra Sea Ranger Unit, Northern Territory Police, Fire and Emergency Services,… pic.twitter.com/rBWw5E2Efk
— Steve Edgington MLA (@SteveEdgoMLA) March 21, 2024
On Wednesday the ADF delivered four tonnes of supplies, primarily food and water, for those residents choosing to stay. A shelter capable of housing 400 people was established at a local school, in addition to another location that can house 100.
NT chief minister Eva Lawler urged people to stay safe and avoid floodwaters where possible.
Rainfall totals up to 380mm were recorded across the McArthur River catchment between Monday and Wednesday this week.
Tropical Cyclone Megan made landfall along the Gulf of Carpentaria as a category three storm on Monday afternoon, with about 700 residents in Borroloola copping the brunt of the downpour once it moved inland.
At the time, local Rebecca Whitehead said the town was “literally cut in two” with some residents forced to boat across the McArthur River to buy food.
Hopes of evacuating the town before the cyclone arrived were dashed when five Royal Australian Air Force aircraft were unable to land and residents were urged to take shelter in specific buildings capable of withstanding a category three storm.
Watt said as the ex-tropical cyclone weather system moved across the NT it was dumping huge amounts of rain on communities “which have had flooding in the last few months already”.
“So it is a dangerous situation,” he said.
