Top End communities are braced for Monday’s arrival of severe Tropical Cyclone Megan, with destructive wind gusts of up to 200km/h expected to bring widespread damage, heavy rainfall and potential flooding to coastal communities into next week.
The weather system intensified to category three on Sunday and Miriam Bradbury from the Bureau of Meteorology said it was expected to remain a category three as it crossed the coast on Monday.
“There is a fractional chance we could see further intensification,” she told ABC News Breakfast. “But at this stage the official forecast is that it will remain at category three and cross the coast at category three strength as well.”
Early on Monday morning the system was 170km south south-east of Alyangula and 135km north-east of Borroloola in the Northern Territory, moving slowly with wind gusts up to 185km/h.
The BoM said it was expected to cross the coast between Nathan River and the Northern Territory/Queensland border on Monday evening, weakening into a tropical low as it moved through the NT.
The warning area spans hundreds of kilometres from Alyangula on Groote Eylandt to Mornington Island in Queensland, extending inland to Borroloola, McArthur River Mine and Robinson River.
Megan began impacting the southern Gulf of Carpentaria coast about 8pm ACST on Sunday.
Australia’s emergency management minister, Murray Watt told, ABC radio there were concerns the system would cross “pretty much straight over” the community of Borroloola, a remote fishing town on the banks of the McArthur River, which has less than 900 residents.
“If it were to reach a category four level that would be quite a serious cyclone,” Watt said. “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 the risk of some pretty serious flooding.”
Late on Sunday the federal government approved a request for the Australian defence force to assist with evacuations, expected to begin early on Monday.
“Potentially up to 800 people could be evacuated to Darwin to keep them safe from this cyclone, and the Northern Territory government is in the process of managing that right now,” Watt said.
“There isn’t a huge amount of time, but better to start evacuating people now rather than waiting till later in the day or until it’s too late.”
The cyclone formed over the Gulf of Carpentaria, east of Groote Eylandt, on Saturday afternoon.
“The very destructive core of Severe Tropical Cyclone Megan is expected to cross the coast during Monday, and those very destructive winds will be gusting up to 220km/h,” Shenagh Gamble of the BoM said.
“We could expect to see widespread heavy totals of 150 to 200mm of rain, but particularly around the core of this system as it approaches the coast and extends inland, we could see rainfall totals around 300 or 400mm or more.”
With the downpour, Gamble said there was a “very dangerous storm tide” associated with the system at significantly higher levels than normal. Damaging winds and dangerous flooding were projected, particularly given already-full catchments.
Category three is considered a severe cyclone, which can cause a significant threat to homes and untethered objects as well as power failures.
An NT incident controller and superintendent, Sonia Kennon, told reporters remote local communities were of particular concern, with some towns on Groote Eylandt, including Umbakumba, already blocked off and isolated to emergency services after receiving more than 400mm of rainfall in the 24 hours to Sunday.
“However, [residents] are all OK at this point in time,” she said. “There is enough food, they have support … [and] in the coming days it will be decided about what ongoing support is further required … their safety is the utmost importance, because what we’re here to do is to ensure that no lives are lost during this weather event.”
⚠️🌊 #QLD Severe #Weather Warning for Abnormally High Tides. Storm surge associated with Tropical #Cyclone #Megan through the Gulf of Carpentaria will likely see water levels on the high #tide exceed the highest tide of the year. Check details at https://t.co/DfkoQPOJex pic.twitter.com/WQ9Nis1Kuk
— Bureau of Meteorology, Queensland (@BOM_Qld) March 17, 2024
Tropical Cyclone Megan is the fifth named system in Australian waters this season, below the average of about 10.
Bradbury said this year more cyclones had made or threatened landfall, causing greater impacts, while there had also been “significant flooding” in the monsoon period.
