UPDATED: Thousands of homes and businesses remained without power on Monday following Tropical Cyclone Fina’s damaging hit on the Greater Darwin area on Saturday, which left trees uprooted, homes and properties damaged, roads temporarily blocked, traffic lights out and structural damage to a hallway outside the intensive care unit at Royal Darwin Hospital.

The cyclone hovered off the coast for several days before quickly escalating into a category three storm by the time it passed between Darwin and the Tiwi Islands on Saturday evening.

In preparation for the cyclone, public facilities including the civic centre, libraries, swimming pools, community centres, parks, ovals, cemeteries, walkways and, controversially, Darwin’s Shoal Bay dump, were shut for the weekend.

Power and Water said that by Sunday night and early Monday morning, power had been restored to a total of 7,500 of the roughly 19,500 homes and businesses affected.

Power and Water’s operations manager Michael Bessalink told ABC Radio Darwin on Monday that crews were working hard to restore power “as quickly as possible”, but could not guarantee that it would be fully restored “within the next day or two”.

“The damage done is considered very similar to what [Cyclone] Marcus was, so expectation-wise, we can’t say at this stage exactly how long it’s going to take,” he said. “But certainly the damage was extensive and there are still some areas where we can’t get access due to trees or whatever blocking roads.”

The government said on Monday afternoon that 13,800 homes had their power restored, with 5,700 left to reconnect.

However, Power and Water faced intense criticism on social media and from talkback radio listeners Monday morning, with many upset the government-owned company had not communicated better with residents during and immediately after the cyclone. No information on when people would have their power restored was provided, which continued into Monday.

A map of current power outages can be found here.

The Department of Education reported on Sunday night that 66 government schools had been impacted by Cyclone Fina, with 15 schools closed on Monday for electrical, water supply and structural repairs.

“Repairs to these schools are being prioritised with an aim to have these schools back online as soon as possible,” the department said.

An update on Monday stated that only nine schools were currently closed, with six more set to reopen on Tuesday, including Alawa, Driver, Leanyer, Moil, Woodroffe, and Nemarluk.

Dundee Beach School, Belyuen School and Middle Point School will remain closed on Tuesday, the department said.

Public buses were operating on regular schedules on Monday. A significant number of traffic lights were out around the city. Officials reminded drivers to treat traffic lights like a roundabout in the event that they are not functioning.

The Darwin International Airport, which closed on Saturday, reported it was open as usual on Monday, but encouraged travellers to check with their airlines for the latest on delays or rebooking options.

Hospitals remained operational across Darwin and Palmerston and on the Tiwi Islands. A photo circulating on social media over the weekend showed severe damage to the RDH ceiling with bricks and debris scattered around.

Part of the ceiling on the first floor at RDH was damaged during Cyclone Fina. Pic: Facebook

The government initially said the damage affected the ICU and the operating theatre, but later said it did not impact on general operations and that patients were not affected. However, it was later revealed that several elective surgeries were cancelled as a result of the structural damage.

It was also later clarified the damage was to the hallway outside of the ICU, not the ICU itself. Patient visitors were limited to “parents, partners and essential caregivers to paediatric patients” on Sunday, according to the hospital.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said on Monday that she shared Darwin residents’ anger over the Shoal Bay tip remaining closed, providing no place for people to dump fallen trees and other green waste.

“The City of Darwin have made the decision not to allow people to dump green waste at the tip, which is ridiculous,” she told Mix 104.9.

“And Litchfield have made similar decision.

“We are working with them [City of Darwin] very closely to urge them to do the right thing by their ratepayers. I don’t think any ratepayer who pays their fees expects to be locked out of their own dump facility. It’s just not acceptable that people can’t dump their green waste.”

The NT Government have set up a green waste dump facility at Hidden Valley, which opened at 1pm Monday.

Asked about her government’s decision to scrap the undergrounding of powerlines in older communities in Darwin to avoid future blackouts, Ms Finocchiaro said she “would love to do it”, but “the debt situation we’re in is astronomical”.

“When we’re talking about undergrounding power, we talking hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars and unfortunately, now is not the time to play ‘point the politics finger’,” she said.

“But you know we had 10 years where we were told that was happening and it just wasn’t. So, look, it’s always on the table and we’ve got a lot of reform with Power and Water.”

Despite the “astronomical debt”, the government recently re-committed to paying $820 million to build a ship lift for the Paspaley Group to operate that the government won’t see any return on investment from, with Paspaley keeping all profits and taxpayers paying to maintain the ship lift over the next 40 years with a total cost expected to be close to $2 billion.

Ms Finocchiaro was not asked about that.

She said she was in contact with the Federal Government over emergency disaster funding following the cyclone damage and would provide more details later.

“There is a range of support to available and we will be going through that detail on what that looks like,” she said.

The Federal Government has committed to the release of disaster recovery funds for individuals, small businesses, non-profit organisations and primary producers.

“The Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA) make provision for the Northern Territory to activate immediate financial assistance to assist local governments and communities to recover from disasters,” Federal Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain said.

Territorians who have faced hardship from Cyclone Fina may qualify for funding of $611 per adult and an additional $309 per child in a family, the government said on Monday.

Low interest loans and freight services, subsidies for primary producers and additional assistance for not-for-profits is also being offered. More details are available at the Secure NT website.

Tropical Cyclone Fina brought unprecedented rainfall to the Greater Darwin area, with Middle Point southeast of Darwin recording a record 430mm of rain in a single day.

On the Cox Peninsula, Charles Point also recorded extreme rainfall, with 235mm falling in the 24-hour period until 9 am on Sunday, surpassing its annual record.

Several November records were broken, including the following measurements: Gunn Point recorded 283.6mm, Darwin had 168.6mm, Leanyer reached 177.6mm, Marrara recorded 146.5mm, Humpty Doo measured 203.8mm, Noonamah received 202mm, Batchelor saw 180.8mm, and Point Stuart recorded 138.2mm.