Queensland Premier David Crisafulli has urged residents to “get ready” and stay up to date with weather warnings as Cyclone Alfred slowly gathers pace ahead of its expected landfall on Friday morning.
Millions of locals have been told to brace for Tropical Cyclone Alfred to hit the south-east Queensland coast and northern NSW early Friday morning, with the category two system to bring heavy rain, damaging winds and flash flooding that could inundate 26,000 homes.
The warning zone designated by the Bureau of Meteorology covers Double Island Point in Queensland to Grafton in New South Wales, including Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Byron Bay and Ballina.
Mr Crisafulli continued his warning messages for Queenslanders at threat from the imminent cyclone, as days turn into “hours”.
“We’re asking people at the moment to get ready and we’ve been saying this message for a few days, days are now becoming hours. Do all you can to get your information, and get your home and family ready,” he told Sky News host Peter Stefanovic on Wednesday.
“We’ve got a website – disaster.qld.gov.au – we’re asking people to go on there, all of the local governments have their storm surge mappings on there as well so, just get the information about how it relates to your property and stay connected over the course of the day.
The Premier also advised residents to make sure there are no loose items or trees around the property that could do damage when the cyclone hits, and that all valuables are close together in case of a quick exit.
He also said locals could expect to receive door-knocks with further information.
Locals near the waterside suburb of Lota, east of Brisbane, were seen queuing in their cars bright and early to collect sandbags amid fears of flooding from falls in the next 48 hours, with up to 400mm on Friday and six-hour totals between 200mm and 250mm.
Local governments have asked for more sandbags with Defence playing a part in transporting them to areas in need overnight.
Supermarkets’ capabilities have also been pushed as shelves were raided by panic buying.
Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie announced supermarkets could begin 24-7 resupply, something Mr Crisafulli said had “never been done before”.
“In this case, there’s no reason why we can’t have trucks going north and south and resupplying,” he said.
“So we’ve said to the supermarkets ‘we’ll do all we can to help you, we want you to mobilise as best you can’ because people are heeding the warning, they’re going in and getting supplies and that’s exactly what should be happening.
Defence to assist in cyclone emergency response
Defence Minister Richard Marles said Queensland was home to two of the biggest defence bases in the country, which has allowed the ADF to “operate from there” so support can be provided to those in need before and after Alfred makes landfall.
“Across these defence force bases, there are thousands of defence personnel who operate from both Gallipoli barracks and Amberley so we’ve actually got a lot of defence personnel in southeast Queensland and obviously they can reach into northern NSW as well,” Marles told Stefanovic.
“Speaking with the chief of the Defence Force last night, I just wanted to make sure that we were as ready as possible to respond to everything that’s required.”
NSW Premier Chris Minns provides update on cyclone’s threat to northern NSW
By David Wu
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns has urged residents in the state’s north to “prepare for the worst” ahead of Tropical Cyclone Alfred’s expected landfall on Friday.
The weather system has turned around and is set to hit south-east on Brisbane and northern NSW as a category two late Thursday night or early Friday morning.
The major concern for locals along the coast and beaches in NSW is high tide, about half a metre higher than usual, which is expected at 1am just before landfall.
“The weather event is picking up pace,” Mr Minns said.
The Premier warned it will be too late to leave by Thursday night, insisting residents who are concerned should move to higher ground or relocate.
The state government will also open up several evacuation centres in the Northern Rivers and Tweed Heads-Byron from 4pm, with the locations on the NSW SES website.
It has also been announced 122 schools in the Northern Rivers will be closed on Wednesday and Thursday to give families more time to prepare for the storm.
“We do not want people in a dangerous situation or a vulnerable situation in the coming 48 hours. We have a massive SES contingent prepositioned in the Northern Rivers region and emergency services have worked hard with Fire and Rescue as well as the RFS to ensure all hands are on deck,” Mr Minns said.
