Australian authorities have cautioned residents in the country’s Northern Territory region to brace for Tropical Cyclone Fina, which is forecast to bring destructive winds and potential flooding to the city of Darwin.
Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said Fina, a Category 3 cyclone sitting in the Van Diemen Gulf with wind gusts up to 165 kilometres per hour (102 miles per hour), was forecast to hit the region’s remote Tiwi Islands and Cape Hotham on Saturday afternoon.
It would then likely pass north of Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory, on Saturday as a “severe tropical cyclone”.
“By Saturday evening, it is expected to make its closest approach towards Darwin. And this is where we could see the worst of the wind and also the rain across the city,” the bureau said.
It urged residents to “immediately commence or continue preparations, especially securing boats and property”.
Weather bureau senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said that while the cyclone was not expected to make landfall, it would bring “widespread heavy rainfall and damaging-to-locally destructive winds” to Darwin, which has a population of about 140,000 people.
“Staying over water means it’s likely to maintain its intensity,” he told the ABC broadcaster.
Kirsten Engels, the Northern Territory Emergency Operations Centre incident controller, urged everyone in affected areas to activate their household emergency plans and move to public shelters if needed.
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