The former category five cyclone, which is expected to weaken to a category one as it reaches Mt Isa in western Queensland late on Thursday, threatened to force the cancellation of two major sporting events scheduled for Traeger Park in central Australia this weekend.
While the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) says Yasi will weaken to a tropical low before moving into the NT on Friday, it has warned of widespread rainfall and winds of up to 100km/h across the region.
"Although Yasi is weakening, showers and gusty storms with heavy rain are expected to persist over the weekend," BoM supervising meteorologist Gordon Jackson said.
"The heavier falls will contribute to significant stream rises and flooding of low-lying areas, especially around Alice Springs.
"This significant weather is expected to reach Alice Springs as early as Friday evening, and is likely to extend west to Yulara on Saturday," he said in a statement released on Thursday.
Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi crossed the Queensland coast near Mission Beach on Wednesday night with destructive core winds of up to 290 km/h extending from Innisfail to Cardwell.
NT Police on Thursday began warning residents in remote parts of central Australia to prepare for possible isolation.
"Police in remote Barkly communities have been talking to residents," Superintendent Megan Rowe said in a statement.
"Anyone who doesn't want to be inconvenienced by being isolated in the community, or those who are frail or ill have been encouraged to make arrangements to travel to a regional centre,
such as Tennant Creek or Alice Springs, and make their own arrangements to stay with friends and relatives," she said, adding that forced evacuations would be unlikely.
Despite the likelihood that heavy rain and blocked roads would deter spectators, the AFL on Thursday decided the Indigenous All Stars game scheduled for Friday night would go ahead.
Already shifted from Darwin because of monsoonal rain, the match will now start almost two hours early, in a bid to avoid the remnants of Cyclone Yasi.
Cricket Australia on Tuesday expressed its frustration that a decision was made to move the AFL exhibition game just nine days before the long running Imparja Cup cricket carnival was due to begin.
Alice Springs Town Council, which maintains Traeger Park, assured Cricket Australia that the AFL game wouldn't damage the pitch, so long as it didn't rain.
Cricket Australia public affairs general manager Peter Young on Thursday told AAP a decision would be made about the continuation of 2011 Imparja Cup following the AFL game.
He said the event, which attracts about 400 participants from around the country each year, was facing tremendous uncertainty after being "ambushed".
"We got kicked in an area that you would normally wear a protector," he said.
"We have an obligation to indigenous Australia to do our best."
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