00:01Let's return to tropical cyclone Narelle. It's a weather event that we've been covering
00:07here on Weekend Breakfast and it has been downgraded to a Category 2 system now as it
00:13moves across the top end. Our reporter Olivana Latouris joins us now from Catherine. We can
00:20see behind you that some preparations have been taking place there, Olivana. Just take
00:25us through what's been happening there. Yeah, absolutely. Well, where I am this morning
00:32is at a giant shared facility in Catherine's industrial area. And what all this action behind
00:40me is is crews have been working all through the night from the Australian Medical Assistance
00:45Team or Ausmat as they're known. This is a capability that was set up actually in the
00:52wake of the Bali bombings. It's something that has been deployed many times since then
00:57to major overseas disasters as well as domestically. But what they're doing is essentially setting
01:03up a hospital. There's a maternity tent behind me. There's radiology. There's primary care
01:10emergency departments. That is because the hospital here in Catherine is at risk of flooding
01:17should there be a major flood event. And so they've been setting up this capability here.
01:23It's the first time in Australian history that this type of hospital has been set up to this
01:28level and to this capacity. So this is a really significant operation that is underway here.
01:34As I said, they've been working right through the night to get this set up. And it's all happening
01:39very, very quickly in anticipation for the weather that is coming our way. Now, otherwise, aside
01:47from what's happening here, it's been a hive of activity right across Catherine over the last
01:5224 to 48 hours. Yesterday, in some very hot and sweaty conditions, volunteers just worked
02:00tirelessly pretty much from dawn to dusk sandbagging. They moved something like 8,000 sandbags across
02:07Catherine, which is a truly heroic effort from those volunteers. We've seen Defence Force on the
02:15ground here, lots of people in uniform, and they have been assisting mostly with the mop-up efforts.
02:21Of course, Catherine is still really getting back on its feet after experiencing some of their worst
02:27flooding in decades here just two weeks ago. So as we kind of were walking through town and through
02:33the streets of Catherine, there are still people who are cleaning up their homes, cleaning out their
02:38businesses, trying to deal with the impacts of what was a really devastating flood event. So this news of
02:46tropical cyclone Norell was certainly one that sparked a great deal of concern for many people here.
02:53They've just had no time to catch their breath in between these disasters. And so it's been a really
03:00significant effort for people to try to make sure that they're prepared for whatever this weather
03:05system brings their way. And I think there is certainly a feeling from what we've heard from
03:10people that they do feel like that this time around, even though they're having to deal with both
03:16mop-up and preparation for another disaster, that at the very least that they do feel prepared for
03:22the weather that's on the way to Catherine later on today.
03:24And what will the weather be like over the next 12 to 24 hours now that this preparation
03:31has already taken place?
03:34Yeah, it's a little bit of a hurry up and wait type situation. I think everyone's sort of eyes
03:39are glued on the sky to see what this weather system will bring. We know that tropical cyclone
03:46Norell is now sitting at a category two, so no longer a severe tropical cyclone, but certainly
03:51are still a very dangerous and destructive weather system. It's headed to Bullman, which is a part of
03:58the north sort of east district of the top end, and it is tracking toward Catherine. The track maps that
04:04we've seen this morning show tropical cyclone Norell being downgraded to a tropical low sometime today
04:12and crossing across near Catherine sometime later this evening. Now, while it is a tropical low as
04:19opposed to a cyclone potentially later today, which is certainly positive news, it is still a serious
04:27concern because of the amount of water that that system could bring to this catchment. We have seen
04:32an absolutely incredible wet season in the top end. People here are absolutely no strangers to a wet
04:39season and they love the rain most of the time, but this season has truly been something else. We've been
04:45speaking to people who were here in Catherine, for example, you know, who have lived here their entire
04:50lives for decades and decades and just say they've never seen anything like it. The rain has been
04:55absolutely relentless and what that has meant is that the catchments and the river systems here are
05:01at capacity. We did see that the Catherine River was falling yesterday, but it's still sitting at about
05:0710 metres and we know just how quickly that river system could come back up because of how big and
05:12saturated this catchment is. There is a major flood warning in place for the Catherine River. So flooding at
05:20about 17.5 metres potentially, but a couple of metres could make a really big difference between homes and
05:26businesses being spared or inundated. So an anxious wait for people in Catherine over the next 12 hours.
05:31As you say, it's a wait and see situation right now. Olivana Latoura is there. Thank you for that update
05:37from Catherine.
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