NT: 120 kph gales expected to lash Top End east coast overnight

AAP General News (Australia)
02-10-2001
NT: 120 kph gales expected to lash Top End east coast overnight

Aboriginal communities and mining towns along the east coast of the Northern Territory
have battened down as a cyclone is expected to develop in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Gale-force winds of up to 120 kph are forecast overnight from Elcho Island off the
north-east tip of Arnhem Land to Numbulwar, south of Gove Peninsula.

Destructive winds reaching 150 kph may develop between Groote Eylandt and the Queensland
border tomorrow afternoon.

The bureau of meteorology says heavy rain is expected to cause flooding in the eastern
Top End today and extending to the gulf country on Sunday.

A cyclone warning west of Elcho Island was cancelled late today as a tropical low pressure
system descended from the Arafura Sea into the gulf.





By 5pm ACST (1830 AEDT), the low was 90 km east of the bauxite mining town of Nhulumbuy
on the Gove Peninsula and moving south-south-east at 20 kph.

It's expected to turn south-west tomorrow.

The bureau is warning residents in the Nhulumbuy and Groote Eylandt areas to pack emergency
kits including a transistor radio, blankets, medicines, food and water.

AAP RTV rmg/wz

KEYWORD: CYCLONE NT (DARWIN)

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