Entire families are sleeping in single rooms almost a week after being evacuated from flooded Northern Territory communities, with a community leader raising health concerns about the conditions.
Lorraine Jones says almost 50 people are currently sleeping in dongas designed for single workers at a nearby workers' camp after being evacuated from their homes in communities around Timber Creek, near the Western Australian border.
"There's nowhere else for them to go at this point apart from finding other accommodation that would … cater for six families instead of one single bedroom," she said.
"We still have leakage on the ceiling and sometimes the blankets and mattresses get wet.
"If you're thinking about health issues like scabies and all that, they're all getting it."
The Indigenous communities of Myatt and One Mile had to be evacuated on Friday as homes became submerged in water after former tropical cyclone Ellie brought significant rainfall to the region.
Ms Jones said residents of another community, Gilwi, were also evacuated today because they were "out of food" and had no drinking water".
She said officials had begun assessing flood-affected communities, but it was unclear when residents would be able to return home.
"It's getting to that stage where people are starting to get irritated and they're thinking 'where do we get help, what do we do,'" she said.
"We’re all isolated … and there's nowhere we can go."
Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said on Wednesday morning that the sewerage treatment plant in the area was assessed as having been severely impacted by the flooding.
However, she said all of the flood-affected homes had been assessed as being either moderately or mildly impacted.
"We will now work with authorities to get those repairs in place," she said.
"We have residents in defence accommodation, we’re working with welfare support to get bedding and linen out there."
Flooding prompts call for dedicated emergency shelter
Residents in flooded communities were initially evacuated to a basketball court in Timber Creek, with 20 people still left sleeping there days after the evacuations before being moved to alternative accommodations.
Ms Jones said there had been little change in terms of emergency infrastructure in the area for decades.
"[During] the 1993 flood … we had no shelters, we were in tents," she said.
"And now we are a growing community with more children.
"They need to consider putting in a cyclone shelter somewhere up higher. We need somewhere that's drier, higher and near the school or the clinic."
Ms Fyles said the government would review emergency shelters in the region.
"In the wake of this incident we will review Timber Creek and the surrounding communities to perhaps identify what could be built into the future to make it a little more comfortable in these rare incidents," she said.
