Two decades ago Katherine was devastated by flood.
The disaster of 1998 will be remembered by the Katherine Times in a special souvenir edition next week.
Through the memories of people who were here, and their startling never seen before pictures, we will mark 20 years since the town was almost wiped from the map.
A third of the population left and never came back, a damage bill which approached $200 million, insurance companies refusing to pay off – it is a remarkable and tragic story.
Three people drowned, lots were rescued from the roofs of their homes – there was little warning as a downgraded cyclone dumped record amounts of rain in the Katherine River catchment.
Katherine remains awkwardly built on a flood plain.
Some thought ‘98 a fluke, a freak of nature, until the same thing very nearly happened again eight years later.
The hospital still hasn’t been moved, there are still no levee banks first said to be top priority.
The shift of the CBD into a second retail centre, marked out in Katherine East, is still refusing to happen.
Some people say we are not much better prepared today than we were 20 years ago.
Tell us your memories of the flood, share your pictures with us – drop them in, email them, post them on our Facebook page, send them by flood boat if you have to.
And remember to get your copy of the paper next week as we mark an event which still causes fear in the eyes of survivors today.
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Chris McLennan
ACM national rural property writer based in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. Career journalist. Multi award winner.
ACM national rural property writer based in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. Career journalist. Multi award winner.
