Everything you need to know about life in Darwin after Tropical Cyclone Fina

It was an intense weekend for Top End residents as they prepared for and then sought refuge from Tropical Cyclone Fina, a category three system which travelled close to the NT coastline on Saturday.

When locals across Darwin and the Tiwi Islands awoke on Sunday morning, hundreds of trees were down across the region, along with some powerlines — some of which caused damage to people's homes.

As a new week begins, here's what you need to know about what happens next.

Will schools be open in Darwin?

In a statement on Sunday, the NT Department of Education said it was "working to ensure all government schools" would open on Monday.

The department said in an update on Monday that of the NT's 153 government schools, 66 had been impacted by Cyclone Fina, with 57 opening today.

Of the nine schools yet to re-open, the department said it was likely only three would remain closed tomorrow "due to continued power or water outages".

Those schools are:

1. Dundee Beach School
2. Belyuen School
3. Middle Point School

"Schools that do not have power or where there is significant damage, will not open until these issues are rectified," an education department spokesperson said in a statement. 

"Repairs to these schools are being prioritised with an aim to have these schools back online as soon as possible."

Schools reopening on Tuesday and the schools set to remain closed would contact families directly to notify them, the spokesperson said.

For non-government schools and early childhood education and care services, parents are being advised to contact the school or service provider to confirm whether they will open tomorrow.

One of the Tiwi Islands' main secondary schools — Tiwi College — also announced on Sunday that it would be forced to close "until further notice" due to the damage done to the school grounds by Cyclone Fina.

"There has been extensive damage done to the insides of some of our currently occupied Family Group Homes, our Administration building was flooded," the statement on Tiwi College's Facebook page read.

"We have issues with water supply and there is much cleaning up around the grounds to make it safe for students.

"[We] will reopen as soon as possible."

What about supermarkets and other businesses?

The NT Police Force's incident controller, Kirsten Engels, said businesses were expected to "run as normal" on Monday, which meant most Top End residents would return to work.

Superintendent Engels said the only exception would be if a particular workplace had safety concerns.

On Sunday, the ABC received reports that a number of Woolworths stores had opened across the greater Darwin region, including at Gateway, Casuarina, Darwin CBD, Coolalinga, Humpty Doo and Leanyer.

Other branches were forced to remain closed due to a loss of power on Saturday night, but the supermarket giant said it hoped to resolve the issues by Monday and return to business as usual.

When will I get my power back?

In the aftermath of Cyclone Fina on Sunday, it was reported that about 19,500 homes and businesses had lost power.

By Sunday evening, the ABC understood that 2,500 customers from parts of Wagaman, Marrara, Moil, Larrakeyah, Ludmilla and Girraween had their power restored.

Power and Water core operations manager Michael Bessalink told ABC Radio Darwin on Monday morning that power had been restored to another 4,500 homes overnight, on top of the 2,500 reconnected on Sunday.

He said Power and Water crews were "working very hard to restore it as quickly as possible" but there was no guarantee "it'll all be done within the next day or two".

"We can't tell people within a minute of where things are going to be on or off, but we'll do our best to actually give some indications to people of where things are at and when that will potentially be restored as we keep working through this exercise," he said.

"The damage done is considered very similar to what Marcus was, so expectation-wise, we can't say at this stage exactly how long it's going to take. 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."

Mr Bessalink said while trees had brought down power lines across the city, cutting off whole streets and suburbs, anyone with individual issues should get in touch.

"Just because you're next door doesn't necessarily mean you're on the same circuit, but I also do stress that sometimes in electrical situations like storms and things like that, there may be damage to stuff that is within your own property," he said.

"So it is also important that you ring through and say 'I haven't got power on at my place and everybody else in the street does' because it might be that you have an individual problem as well."

By Monday afternoon about 70 per cent of affected homes and shops had been reconnected.

Mr Besselink said crews were working across the territory, including in Wurrumiyanga on the Tiwi Islands, and a live map had been set up to show the areas still experiencing outages.

NT Police Commissioner Martin Dole said it could be "some days" before power was fully restored on the Tiwi Islands.

Cars, buses and flights

Superintendent Engels encouraged people driving on Top End roads over the coming days to "really take care" and "drive to the conditions".

"We've got a lot of traffic lights that are out," she said.

"If there's a light out, don't blow through that intersection, slow down, act as if it's a give way sign."

Superintendent Engels said all public buses would be operating on Monday.

Darwin International Airport's executive general manager, Rob Porter, said the "runway held up extremely well" and the airport was "back up and running again".

However, he did note that the airport would continue to "monitor the weather conditions over the next few days".

What about the hospitals?

All hospitals and medical centres "remain operational" across Darwin and Palmerston as are the medical centres on the Tiwi Islands.

Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) declared a code brown when the city entered the cyclone warning zone on Friday morning and began discharging patients to make room for any emergency admissions.

Restrictions were lifted Monday, with visitors now permitted at both RDH and Palmerston Regional Hospital.

On Monday, Ms Finocchiaro said NT hospitals were "back fully functioning" except for "a small disruption" to about 16 elective surgeries at RDH scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.

"Thank goodness Royal Darwin Hospital is back to full and normal operation and people can now go and visit their loved ones," she said.

Federal Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain said the government had activated disaster recovery grants for Territorians in need of assistance.

"What that means is that there'll be personal hardship payments available for people in those seven local government areas, as well as a range of low interest loans and freight subsidies for primary producers and additional assistance for not-for-profits for any assets that they may need replaced," she said.

"We'll also work with the local government authorities on replacement of critical infrastructure once their rapid assessments are done as well."