A woman who was clinging to a tree in floodwaters for 11 hours has been rescued after Alice Springs was drenched with months’ worth of rain overnight.

The woman, and another, were swept into the swollen Todd River early on Thursday after storms brought floods and a warning for residents to shelter indoors.

The usually dry river has overflowed its banks to flood low-lying roads and close all causeways across the riverbed.

Northern Territory Police said officers were responding to multiple flood-related incidents across Alice following the rapid rise in water levels. They said the Todd River peaked at about 3.5 metres early on Thursday morning.

About 3am on Thursday, police received reports of a woman being washed off Stephens Road Bridge. On the scene, they found two women in the water downstream.

One was rescued immediately, while the second continued into later in the morning, as she clung to a tree and the water began to recede.

The Northern Territory News identified the pair as Laurel Palmer and her daughter Latarne Wayne.

Wayne was able to use all her strength to swim to safety, but her mum was not so lucky.

“I thought she was gonna die. I thought the water took her … it was raining too, and I was drowning and swallowing water,” Wayne told the NT News.

According to one video posted to Facebook by an account called Manta Bus, there was 60 millimetres of rain in some parts of Alice Springs on Wednesday night. Other reports suggested up to 100 millimetres.

The outback town normally gets about 290 millimetres of rain a year.

Across Alice Springs, police, the Northern Territory Fire and Rescue Service and NT Emergency Service have responded to people being stranded in floodwaters, stuck vehicles and reports of flooding of homes.

The NT Emergency Service issued an emergency flood warning for Alice early on Thursday, saying homes could become isolated by floodwaters, which could damage properties.

Residents were warned it was too dangerous to travel and they should shelter indoors until the all-clear was given by authorities.

About the same time, the Bureau of Meteorology cancelled a severe thunderstorm warning for the Barkly, Simpson, Lasseter and Tanami districts, including Alice Springs.

The heavy rain across Central Australia has closed many roads and isolated many remote communities.

About 300 people from Daly River, about 220 kilometres south-west of Darwin, remain at a pavilion at the Darwin Showgrounds waiting for floodwaters to recede.

On Wednesday, incident controller Gavin Kennedy said some of the remote town’s homes were ankle deep in floodwater and it could be many days before it was safe for residents to return.

He said the town’s roads and airstrip were almost completely underwater.

Forecaster Weatherzone said a low-pressure system was likely to bring a “multiday soaking” for some parts of Australia in coming days.

“Some areas in central and south-east Queensland and northern NSW could see 100-200 millimetres of rain between Thursday and Sunday this week,” it said on Thursday.

“Computer models indicate the potential for more than 300 millimetres in south-east Queensland and far north-east NSW over this four-day period.”

-with AAP