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Cyclone Fina swept past Darwin, leaving residents in distress during a harrowing 24-hour ordeal.
The ferocious category 4 cyclone knocked out power for 20,000 households and severely damaged the roof of the Northern Territory’s largest hospital over the weekend.
As the severe tropical storm approached the Northern Territory’s capital, it grazed the coastline just 50 kilometers away as a formidable category 3 system.
At Darwin Airport, winds exceeding 100 km/h were recorded, adding to the chaos.
In Middle Point, located less than 60 kilometers from Darwin’s center, a staggering 430 millimeters of rain fell, intensifying the storm’s impact.
Overnight, part of the ceiling at the Royal Darwin Hospital collapsed, though no one was injured.
Fina was much more powerful than Cyclone Marcus, which passed Darwin in 2018 as a category 2 system and Territorians woke to widespread damage.
Boats were washed ashore and cubby houses crushed by trees but damage bill was much bigger for others.
“Everyone’s about to doze off, we hear a big thud outside, we look out the window, it’s pitch black because we’ve got no power there’s a tree in the yard,” one local said.
The highest praise for the public was from the Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro
“I’m very proud to be a Territorian today, where we stood together as a community, listened to the advice of our emergency services professional, were prepared, did what we needed to do, and it shows the strength of the Territory community,” Finocchiaro said.
Late this afternoon, Cyclone Fina was heading south-west towards the north-east of Western Australia’s Kimberley Coast as a category 4 storm.
Winds of up to 165km/h and gusts to 230km/h were reported but the storm wasn’t predicted to make landfall.
Flights were resuming at Darwin Airport.