Cyclone Fina cuts power, fells trees across Northern Territory

Sunday, 23 November 2025 19:18

Cyclone Fina has roared past Darwin, causing a terrifying 24 hours for residents.

The category 4 storm cut power to 20,000 homes and caved in the roof of the Northern Territory's largest hospital among other damage this weekend.

The severe tropical cyclone closed in on the Northern Territory capital and skimmed past just 50 kilometres off the coast as a powerful category 3 system.

Part of the ceiling collapsed at one of Darwin's major hospitals, Royal Darwin Hospital as Cyclone Fina smashed the city.

Destructive winds of more than 100km/h were recorded at Darwin Airport.

Less than 60 kilometres from the heart of the city, a whopping 430 millimetres of rain was dumped at Middle Point.

Overnight, part of the ceiling at the Royal Darwin Hospital collapsed, though no one was injured.

Fina was much more powerful than Cyclone Marcus, which passed Darwin in 2018 as a category 2 system and Territorians woke to widespread damage.

Boats were washed ashore and cubby houses crushed by trees but damage bill was much bigger for others.

Trees were down all across the city thanks to the huge winds and rain of Cyclone Fina in Darwin.

"Everyone's about to doze off, we hear a big thud outside, we look out the window, it's pitch black because we've got no power there's a tree in the yard," one local said.

The highest praise for the public was from the Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro

"I'm very proud to be a Territorian today, where we stood together as a community, listened to the advice of our emergency services professional, were prepared, did what we needed to do, and it shows the strength of the Territory community," Finocchiaro said.

Late this afternoon, Cyclone Fina was heading south-west towards the north-east of Western Australia's Kimberley Coast as a category 4 storm.

Winds of up to 165km/h and gusts to 230km/h were reported but the storm wasn't predicted to make landfall.

Flights were resuming at Darwin Airport.