CANBERRA, Mac 18 (NNN-AAP) – The Australian Defence Force (ADF), is deployed, to carry out evacuations from a remote area of the Northern Territory (NT), ahead of a cyclone, making landfall.
Murray Watt, minister for emergency management, approved a request from the NT government, for ADF assistance to evacuate up to 800 people from the town of Borroloola – more than 700 km south-east of Darwin – and its surrounds, as the region braces for Tropical Cyclone Megan.
As of this morning, the cyclone was still over the water 120 km north-east of Borroloola in the Gulf of Carpentaria, after causing widespread damage on Groote Eylandt, off the NT’s north-east coast.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) warned, the storm will make landfall on the mainland this afternoon, as a category three cyclone, bringing with it a very destructive core, with wind speeds of up to 200 km per hour, as well as, heavy rainfall, damaging waves and dangerous flooding.
“There is some concern that not only could there be damage from the cyclone itself, in terms of wind gusts to homes in Borroloola, but also, there is a risk of some pretty serious flooding,” Watt told state media, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio.
Evacuations began this morning, with the elderly and vulnerable prioritised.
Due to the small runway in Borroloola, Senator Malarndirri McCarthy – who is from the town – told the ABC that, smaller aircraft would take evacuees to the nearby Macarthur River Mine airport, where they would transfer to larger Royal Australian Air Force planes to be taken to Darwin.
Groote Eylandt was hit by strong winds and up to 680 millimetres of rain in the 48 hours to Sunday morning as the cyclone approached.
The Groote Eylandt Mining Company manganese mine on the island, was forced to close due to the storm.– NNN-AAP
