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Major flooding in the Daly River / Nauiyu community (Supplied)

Flooding in the remote town of Daly River, about 220 kilometres south-west of Darwin, is edging closer to becoming the community’s worst on record.

As of Friday morning, a flood level of 16.23 metres had been recorded at the Daly River Police Station gauge — just centimetres from the record 1998 flood level of 16.25m.

In a major flood warning alert on Friday, the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said more “moderate rainfall” was still forecast for the area over the coming days.

The BOM’s James Ashley said “there’s every chance” the flooding in Daly River would reach the 1998 level and even exceed it by a “few centimetres”.

He added that flooding at the community would be a “prolonged flood event”, with the area expected to stay at the major flood level for the next week or more.

Residents from Daly River, also known as Nauiyu, were evacuated from their community on Saturday and have been staying at Foskey Pavilion at the Darwin Showgrounds ever since.

It is the second time this year the community has been hit by major flooding and residents have been displaced, although water levels last time peaked at 14.2m.

Authorities are reminding drivers “if it’s flooded, forget it”. (ABC News: James Elton)

Meanwhile, the flood threat in Katherine has subsided, with the town’s water levels now below flood level at 14.25m.

As of Thursday, about half of all homes in the town and the nearby community of Beswick have been assessed, with 25 declared “severely damaged”.

Emergency services are still urging residents to avoid driving in flood water.

“Floodwaters can hide damaged roads, debris and other hazards, and in the territory they also present a very real crocodile threat,” incident controller Emma Carter said.

Flood warnings in place across the Top End

Aside from the Daly River area, the only other major flood warning in place is for Georgina River and Eyre Creek, which could affect properties along the NT-Queensland border.

However the BOM said “no significant rainfall” was forecast for the region over the coming days.

Meanwhile, residents along the Victoria River, including at the community of Kalkarindji, have been issued a minor flood warning following falls of up to 115 millimetres overnight.

Mr Ashley said the region would continue to see “heavier falls” over the next 24 hours, with the BOM warning minor flooding at Kalkarindji is possible.

On Friday morning the gauge at Kalkarindji was sitting at 2.87m and rising — with minor flooding in the region classified as starting at 9m.

Acting Commander Carter said the Victoria Highway was closed as engineers inspected the relevant bridges and roads and assessed whether they were safe to be reopened.

“Motorists should expect some delays and should check the Road Report before travelling,” she said.

Emma Carter says the Victoria Highway is closed for engineer assessment. (ABC News)

Further north, in the remote community of Beswick which is 113km out of Katherine, the BOM has issued its final flood warning, with levels below flood level at its Beswick Bridge gauge.

Despite this, the BOM has said further rainfall is forecasted over the coming days and “may lead to renewed river rises” at Beswick.

Relief payments rolling out

Eight days on from when the latest flooding began across the Top End, Acting Commander Emma Carter said more than 800 people remained in evacuation centres across Katherine, Mataranka and Darwin.

Despite that, she said some services were slowly returning to normal operations.

“Essential services are gradually returning to Katherine, including the supermarket reopening and the pharmacy,”

she said.

The incident controller said that assistance payments were now being rolled out, with “over 1,110 payments already issued to residents affected by the flooding in Katherine”.

It comes after residents experienced delays with accessing payments on Thursday, following a burst sewerage main near the distribution centre.

Acting Commander Carter said additional staff had been deployed to Katherine to help make up for lost time.

“And the centre will reopen over the weekend with extended hours, and information for those extended hours can be found on the Secure NT website,” she said.

Work to restore Darwin dam pumps ongoing

Pumping equipment at Darwin’s main dam stopped working on Monday after being overwhelmed by flooding, leading to authorities issuing a boil water alert and urging residents to reduce their water use.

As of Thursday afternoon two of the pumps had resumed operating via temporary generators.

On Friday, Power and Water Corporation (PWC) acting chief executive John Pease said works on the pumps were progressing and the organisation expected to have all four connected to the main overhead power supply “by close of business today”.

“We’ve also taken pre-emptive steps and sandbagged around the pump room and we also have our sump pump on hand, to prevent any reoccurrence of any inundation in that area,” he said.

Pumps at the Darwin River Dam, which supplies 85 per cent of Darwin’s water, stopped working on Monday. (ABC News: Tristan Hooft)

Mr Pease said at the peak of the flooding in Katherine, about 2,800 households had lost power, with that figure down to 196 as of Friday morning.

“The majority of those will need to obtain certificates of compliance for electrical safety, once the water recedes in their home,” he said.

“So we’re reminding everybody that once that water recedes, you need to get an electrician in to inspect the electrical wiring in your home, obtain a certificate of compliance, then contact us because we need to get that certificate of compliance before we can turn the power back on.”

Mr Pease said PWC had so far received 220 certificates of compliance and had 54 of those still to process, with crews working to process any requests within 24 hours.

A boil water alert remains in place for Katherine, he said, though there are no water supply issues for the town.