10 000 stayed.
The first responses to the Cyclone was the Northern Territory Police. The Army also played an important role in the clean-up of Cyclone Tracy.
Before the cyclone hit, emergency preparations were made and first aid materials were collected at the Darwin and Casuarina police stations. The Commissioner warned officers on duty that their afternoon shifts may be extended.
As the storm was intensifying, police stations received calls of reported damage and road blockage of fallen power lines. By midnight 150 non-police were sheltering at police stations. At 1 am there calls to police officers to save three lives.
As daylight hit, Police patrols estimated that 90% of Darwin buildings were damaged or destroyed, and that the main destruction was in the northern suburbs. Schools were used as emergency centres, and police stations were used as morgues. Police officers had the basic necessities: cooking, hygiene, first aid, and recording facilities at the school emergency centres. The search for dead and injured in the worst hit areas commenced. 27 police officers were injured during the cyclone.
The Commissioner of the police headquarters was in charge of the large evacuation of Darwin's affected residents. The evacuation of Darwin's residents is the largest in Australia's history.
One police duty which attracted wide and misinformed publicity was patrols to shoot packs of marauding dogs - many owners had turned their animals loose before evacuation.
(Bruce Wernham - first shift for the NT police was the night of Cyclone Tracy)
(Northern Territory Government, 2012)
Evacuation
The priorities for air evacuation were as follows:
| Priority one | Pregnant women, sick and injured. |
| Priority two | Women and children only, unless father was essential for the well being of the group |
| Priority three | Elderly people |
| Priority four | Married couples |
| Priority five | Single people |
The Evacuation of Darwin
| Date | By Air | By Road |
| 26 December | 1,169 | |
| 27 December | 4,083 | 4,200 |
| 28 December | 8,223 | 1,000 |
| 29 December | 7,106 | 1,200 |
| 30 December | 4,069 | 634 |
| 31 December | 978 | 200 |
| Total | 25,628 | 9,734 |
Darwin population 31st December 1974: 10,638