The fans are on full blast in Deborah Jones's ageing home, the mud and debris has been hosed from the floor and there's a skip outside filled with soaking mattresses.
These are the remnants of a home flooded unexpectedly in the tiny community of Myatt, where many families who lost everything may never entirely rebuild.
A major clean up effort is underway following a flash flood that inundated homes and businesses in the isolated town of Timber Creek and its outstations, in the wake of ex-Tropical Cyclone Ellie on December 23.
The remote town of about 280 people, near the NT's border with WA, is about 600 kilometres south of Darwin.
Almost half of Myatt's 80 residents were evacuated to a local basketball court on the night, where many spent hours cold, wet and unable to go home, and watching the river rise rapidly around them.
Deborah wasn't in the region when the water peaked, reaching almost one-and-a-half metres above the ground, she said.
"We heard on the phone our house was underwater," she said.
The unrelenting weather and road closures meant no one was getting in or out, leaving a community to fend for itself.
"My brother Daniel was out rescuing people and getting people to higher ground," she said.
"It is scary when you have [a] flood in your home."
When she finally got through the next day, a layer of debris and mud covered the floors and reached high on the walls.
Three other homes in the community had also been battered by the deluge.
Deborah's small house, where 11 people slept most nights, sometimes on the floor due to chronic overcrowding, was uninhabitable.
"It was really messy, a lot of rubbish in the house, a lot of dirt," she said.
"I lost nearly half of my stuff and my three children … they lost half of their belongings.
"My house being underwater, it didn't feel like [I was] coming home."
Only half of her house has electricity, and the water in the community was only recently turned back on.
"The moist is still there you can still smell it when you walk in the house. We tried to hose out all the dirt and all the rubbish and debris," she said.
"The smell is very terrible."
In the aftermath of the flood, families including Deborah's, were relocated to a nearby workers camp and a defence housing facility by the NT government — many could be in these small makeshift homes for weeks.
The NT government has also begun facilitating flood relief payments under the Federal Government's Flood Relief Recovery Fund.
Deborah says she hopes to be able to access some of that money to get back on track, but taking stock of the damage, she's unsure if the payments will be enough.
"We have to try replace everything, but we don't have the money to buy the beds and mattresses. Katherine is 285 kilometres [away] to go and cart stuff and once you get items from there you have to put it on the truck and it's very expensive," she said.
She is also worried that the sodden floors and walls, that haven't had a chance to dry as rain continues to pour intermittently, will become a hazard.
"My son has a heart condition … and I have a little grand daughter who was born premature and she's very small and she can easily catch a cold," she said.
"The moist in the house is not good for those children."
Next door, Deborah's sister Caroline lost nearly all of her possessions in the flood as well.
As the clean up effort gains ground, concerns are now turning to how prepared Timber Creek is for future disasters, with many in the community calling for an evacuation centre.
Traditional owner Lorraine Jones is one of those, however she says the region's chronic overcrowding needs to be addressed urgently.
She says better housing that is equipped to deal with future flooding events also needs to be considered.
