Samantha Donovan: Communities in far north Queensland are preparing for one of the most severe storms they've seen in decades. Category 5 Cyclone Norelle is approaching the east coast of Australia and is expected to hit tomorrow morning. In the Northern Territory, residents of Catherine are still cleaning up after recent flooding, and they're now preparing for the possibility of another flood emergency as the cyclone moves west. Kathleen O'Connor has more.
Kathleen O'Connor: An urgent warning from Queensland's Premier David Crisafulli.
David Crisafulli: This is a serious event. We want to be really clear to the community, your windows to prepare and take action are closing and they're closing quickly.
Kathleen O'Connor: As Category 5 Cyclone Norelle closes in on communities in far north Queensland.
David Crisafulli: If you are in the warning zone, you have to make your preparations now. If a Category 5 system crosses the coast in this location, it'll be the first time that's happened in over 100 years.
Kathleen O'Connor: The tropical cyclone is expected to make landfall as a Category 4 system between the coastal towns of Cape Tribulation and 600 kilometres north in Lockhart River at 10am on Friday, bringing with it winds of up to 200 kilometres an hour and heavy rainfall of up to 100 millimetres. A warning zone has been declared for those areas extending across the central peninsula near Weipa. Local businesses are preparing. Jamie Sutton is the manager at North Farm Pharmacy in Weipa.
Jamie Sutton: A lot of businesses around Weipa are closing, if not this afternoon, tomorrow, including the airport, a lot of the local shops, a lot of the delivery companies are closing down. We pack a lot of medications for some of the outlying communities. They've picked up enough medications for their people to get them through the next few days.
Kathleen O'Connor: Josh Lyon owns the local bakery. He's staying open for as long as he can so the community can stock up on bread.
Josh Lyon: A lot of operations are shutting down so that people can get prepared. We'll be open sort of as long as we can to sort of help the community, yeah.
Kathleen O'Connor: Towns have already been evacuated, schools shut and flights cancelled. The State Government has deployed dozens of extra police, paramedics and State Emergency Service personnel to help impacted residents in isolated communities. After the cyclone moves through far north Queensland, the concern shifts to the Northern Territory. Jonathan How is from the Bureau of Meteorology.
Jonathan How: We are expecting that river levels, not just across the Katherine area, but right across the top end, will start to rise again with heavy rainfall expected with tropical cyclone Norell forecast to move across the top end this weekend. Many communities are still dealing with major flooding.
Kathleen O'Connor: Hundreds of residents have been moved to safer areas and the Australian Defence Force has been called in to assist. Katherine resident and business owner Trent De With is still cleaning up from the last flood less than two weeks ago.
Trent De With: At the moment I feel like I'm in a movie where we're waiting for an asteroid to come and land on us but because we're just sitting waiting. Our river system is already full, our ground water is full, everything around us is already at capacity and we're expecting a cyclone to come on top of us which is about the worst case scenario you could think of right now.
Kathleen O'Connor: He says many in the community are back to sandbagging again.
Trent De With: We have now started pretty much to go from a recovery phase to a protection phase again. They're evacuating some of our remote communities on the east coast of the NT which is fair enough because that thing's going to be a category three when it pretty much directly hits them but here in town everyone's just doing their preparation. They're getting gas cookers and gas and making sure they've got food, water and shelter.
Kathleen O'Connor: Federal Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain says there's been two emergency meetings between all levels of government ahead of Cyclone Norelle's arrival.
Kristy McBain: This is a very intense system and people should make the necessary preparations as soon as possible. The National Emergency Management Agency is working very closely with the Queensland and Northern Territory governments and stands ready to support if and when required as requested.
Samantha Donovan: The Federal Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain. That report from Kathleen O'Connor.