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Speaker 1: Joining us live on the line is the Chief Minister

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Speaker 1: of the Northern Territory, Lea Finocchiaro. Good morning to your

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Speaker 1: chief Minister.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie and to your listeners.

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Speaker 1: Now, Chief Minister, what is the latest from the government's

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Speaker 1: perspective when it comes to tropical cyclone Feena.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks Katie, And certainly there's been a lot of

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Speaker 2: updates and people are really encouraged to make sure they

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Speaker 2: are staying tuned into the news and that they're watching

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Speaker 2: secure NTI for all of the most up to day

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Speaker 2: reliable information. But Darwin has now most recently Darwin now

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Speaker 2: has been put in the watch zone and so we

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Speaker 2: have a warning continues from Cape Don to Maning Greta

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Speaker 2: which includes Coburginsa, Mindalang and war are We and then

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Speaker 2: the watches for Teevie Islands, Darwin all the way east

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Speaker 2: to Gambalanya.

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Speaker 1: Chief Minister, from a government perspective, you know what is

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Speaker 1: happening now from your side of things, to make sure

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Speaker 1: that everybody is prepared at this point in time. We know, schools,

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Speaker 1: the airport, that kind of thing all remains open.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's correct. So the Territory Controller, who is the

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Speaker 2: police Commissioner. He has now taken over this emergency situation

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Speaker 2: and we've stood up our Emergency Operations Center that then

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Speaker 2: has the team in their ass at all agencies, making

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Speaker 2: sure they are tracking and communicating with our local emergency

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Speaker 2: teams out on the ground in any of the affected communities.

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Speaker 2: And then what happens is we are standing up the

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Speaker 2: Crisis Management Subcommittee of Cabinet today and where we will

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Speaker 2: get further briefings. I will then go out to the

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Speaker 2: Emergency Operations Center today to have a further briefing and

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Speaker 2: of course thank the staff who've been working around the

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Speaker 2: clock to make sure that we are prepared. I've also

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Speaker 2: made sure that the opposition leader and member for Arafura,

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Speaker 2: I've been in contact with them yesterday and they will

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Speaker 2: be having briefings today because it impacts people in their

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Speaker 2: electrics and we want them well supported to support their

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Speaker 2: communities and constituents as well. And there will be a

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Speaker 2: bomb update, a Bureau of Meteorology update at ten thirty

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Speaker 2: and then the police and Emergency Services will give another

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Speaker 2: community update at two pm.

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Speaker 1: Now we are going to catch up with them as

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Speaker 1: well throughout this morning. The Bureau of Meteorology and also

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Speaker 1: be catching up with Northern Territory Emergency Services Chief Minister.

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Speaker 1: At this point in time, are we needing to see

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Speaker 1: any evacuations from the Tiwi Islands.

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Speaker 2: Not at this point in time, But our local emergency

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Speaker 2: committees are on the ground dealing directly into the incident

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Speaker 2: management team out at the Emergency Operations Center and they

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Speaker 2: determine the level of risk. It's right now we're looking

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Speaker 2: through their vulnerable people that need to be evacuated now

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Speaker 2: and so those decisions are made for a very clear structure.

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Speaker 2: There is a territory wide emergency management plan which is

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Speaker 2: now in full swing and so people don't need to panic. Again,

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Speaker 2: this is about being prepared and what prepared means, you

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Speaker 2: know particularly, I mean your listeners will be predominantly sort

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Speaker 2: of Darwin and Palm and base. But what being prepared

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Speaker 2: means is being able to look after your household, your

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Speaker 2: family for seventy two hours, so that's clean water, food, blankets, batteries,

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Speaker 2: all those types of things. And again your emergency kits

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Speaker 2: should be ready to go and at this time of year,

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Speaker 2: but there's no cause for alarm or panic. It's just

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Speaker 2: about being organized and keeping up to date with the

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Speaker 2: latest information.

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Speaker 1: So you've given the strength of Marcus and the issues

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Speaker 1: with power. So you know our previous cyclone that we

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Speaker 1: had there with the power issues, have extra contingencies been

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Speaker 1: put in place given this is looking as though it's

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Speaker 1: following a similar path and a potential hit to Darwin.

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Speaker 1: And we know that for some people though without power

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Speaker 1: for five days, well I was without power for five days,

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Speaker 1: I know others were in a situation where it was

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Speaker 1: potentially longer.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I remembert in the rural area there were people

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Speaker 2: out for more than seven days, and so it is

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Speaker 2: really important again going to your point, you know it's

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Speaker 2: about we say three days is rule of thumb, but

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Speaker 2: of course thing happens. It could be more, it could

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Speaker 2: be less, or it could be nothing at all. And

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Speaker 2: I think what's important is it's all you know, it

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Speaker 2: remains unpredictable. This is a weather event, and so being prepared,

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Speaker 2: having the right information at the right time as that

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Speaker 2: progresses is important. This morning, for example, the Darwin to

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Speaker 2: Tie ferry service has been canceled and the Arnham barge

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Speaker 2: services have been suspended, but shelters certainly are not open yet.

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Speaker 2: We're not a fat point so it's just it's just

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Speaker 2: a cascading of responses depending on what happens.

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Speaker 1: So just in terms of power and water, I'm assuming

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Speaker 1: they're on standby, they're ready to go if and when

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Speaker 1: this thing does hit.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. So when I said, when I mentioned we've

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Speaker 2: got the emergency Operations Center activated, that has all key

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Speaker 2: and impacted agencies right there in the heart of the

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Speaker 2: operations center hearing firsthand what's going on on the ground.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, large weather events as we're commonly used to

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Speaker 2: often result in power adages, but whereas prepared as we

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Speaker 2: can be to support territories through that.

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Speaker 1: Now, you know, at this point in time, the advice

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Speaker 1: is to stay home for people, you know, when it

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Speaker 1: gets closer. But obviously then there will be people making

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Speaker 1: those decisions as to whether they do we evacuate to

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Speaker 1: one of those centers or not.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. So again, if you stay connected to

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Speaker 2: secure NT and listening to the news, then all of

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Speaker 2: those communications will come through from the authorities being police

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Speaker 2: and emergency services, and so it's very important people are

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Speaker 2: understanding that information at the right time, and that's when

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Speaker 2: people will be told to stay you know, stay at home.

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Speaker 2: If you have a safe place at home, you'll stay

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Speaker 2: at home. If you'd like to go to a shelter,

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Speaker 2: then you know you can identify. You should be identifying

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Speaker 2: now the nearest shelter to you and what your plan

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Speaker 2: is to get there, because the information always is is

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Speaker 2: plan early and be there early. You don't want to

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Speaker 2: be driving through the think of a storm again. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's just about having that personal responsibility about your own

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Speaker 2: plans and keeping close to the information at hand.

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Speaker 1: Well, Chief Finister Leah Fanocchiaro, will let you go. It

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Speaker 1: sounds like it's a busy day ahead. We may catch

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Speaker 1: up with you tomorrow. We'll wait and see.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, take care everyone and please stay tuned.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much. That's the Chief Finister, the Lea Finocchiaro