BoM path track map predicts cyclone off Australia’s coast to make landfall in SE Qld on Saturday morning near Brisbane, the first storm of its size to do so in decades. Follow the latest updates todayBrisbane flood map: suburbs at risk during Cyclone AlfredWhy did TC Alfred slow down on its path towards the east coast?Send us your photographs and videos of Cyclone AlfredGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastWelfare recipients told to perform mutual obligations as cyclone bears downWe have a news story this morning about the impact the cyclone is already having on life in Queensland.Fallen trees and giant stands of bamboo blocked the single road to our farm until the army and council brought heavy machinery to clear a path some time after.We were without running water or power for days, maybe weeks, the packing shed a makeshift kitchen where we ate meals cooked off a gas barbecue and drank instant coffee made with rainwater and UHT milk to the hum of a generator. Continue reading…BoM path track map predicts cyclone off Australia’s coast to make landfall in SE Qld on Saturday morning near Brisbane, the first storm of its size to do so in decades. Follow the latest updates todayBrisbane flood map: suburbs at risk during Cyclone AlfredWhy did TC Alfred slow down on its path towards the east coast?Send us your photographs and videos of Cyclone AlfredGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastWelfare recipients told to perform mutual obligations as cyclone bears downWe have a news story this morning about the impact the cyclone is already having on life in Queensland.Fallen trees and giant stands of bamboo blocked the single road to our farm until the army and council brought heavy machinery to clear a path some time after.We were without running water or power for days, maybe weeks, the packing shed a makeshift kitchen where we ate meals cooked off a gas barbecue and drank instant coffee made with rainwater and UHT milk to the hum of a generator. Continue reading…
Anthony Albanese said that overnight he approved a request for 120 Australian defence force personnel to depart “immediately” for NSW.
They’ll start work today supporting the local SES [with] door knocking as well as conducting welfare checks on vulnerable members of the community.
They’ll support the SES with sandbagging, damage assessments and essential services.
The chief medical officer has also activated the Department of Health and Aged Care’s national incident centre for TC Alfred, the PM said.
The national incident centre is activated when there’s a significant event or an emerging threat. It’s a coordination mechanism to ensure that communication is maintained between the Commonwealth department of health, state health authorities, and response agencies, including of course here at Nema.
Major flooding up to 16m or 17m expected for Lismore
The Lismore MP Janelle Saffin said major flooding is expected in the region, telling reporters:
The predictions are for a major flood, and we’re talking 16 to 17 meters. It was 16 meters in 2008 … So you know, it’s everywhere. It’s the whole region. We’re looking out for the whole region, the whole north coast. It’s also spreading some of the weather to the Northern Tablelands.
Sergeant Scott Allerton has warned people who have not evacuated that they should leave in the next few hours.
He said there will not be enough boats to get everyone out, if they don’t leave now.
There are 178 ADF officers already on the ground, he added, and 35 clearance vehicles which can get through flood water.
I will strongly encourage everyone that has been living or who is in the evacuation zone to leave now. The weather will deteriorate over the next few hours, and then it may be too late to leave …
There will not be enough boats, there will not be enough rescue people, if people don’t heed the advice. So take the time now to get out of those evacuation spaces, and we won’t need the community to step up.
He said there were still a number of “considerable high tides” occurring and a number of beaches had been affected.
But we’re still very early in this cyclone here, in actual fact, the cyclone hasn’t even hit landfall yet.
Minns grateful for support from ADF in cyclone response
The NSW premier Chris Minns is back up, and welcomed news the PM has made ADF personnel available to state agencies.
We’re very grateful for that. It’s very important that we have that capacity if the worst is realised.
Minns said 40 flood rescue teams had been pre-positioned in the Northern Rivers.
But we don’t want anyone to feel complacent as a result of the significant infrastructure that’s in place.
The acting chief superintendent Stuart Fisher hassaid29,000 dwellings are under evacuation orders.
[There are] 18 emergency warnings to evacuate, and 24 watch and acts and prepare to evacuate.
It is really, really pleasing for us to see that our warnings are being acknowledged and treated properly, and the members of the public are treating this seriously.
He said as a result, there were only five flood rescues overnight.
That goes to show us that everyone is listening to us. As the premier said, we don’t expect you to drive through flooded waters. You are heeding that advice, and we thank you for that.
Minns urges people to follow evacuation orders
Chris Minns said that “thousands of people” have been asked to leave their home and have heeded this message.
If you’re one of the few people that are remaining in your house and you’re in an evacuation area, you’re one of the only people in your street left and you will literally be by yourself, so please follow these evacuation orders. Unless you have to, stay off the roads. It’s hugely important.
Minns says NSW residents could be without power for days as crews face dangerous conditions
Chris Minns said thousands of people have been asked to leave their homes and there are thousands of houses without electricity in the northern rivers.
This is as a result of higher winds moving through those communities, knocking over power poles, knocking over trees, and making it a very hazardous situation.
He said it could be “multiple days for much of that community to be switched [back] on to electricity”.
I don’t want the public to believe that this is because crews haven’t been pre-positioned, but any reasonable person would acknowledge that in these conditions, we need to make sure that crews are safe and that they can get to power outages in reconnect communities.
They’re going to do it as soon as possible, but they need to do it in a safe way. Falling debris is still a major issue.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has also been providing an update on Tropical Cyclone Alfred. Speaking in Lismore he said:
There has been an extension of the evacuation orders from yesterday evening into other parts of the northern rivers.
The following locations are subject to an emergency warning to evacuate by 9pm tonight:
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Lismore
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Parts of Coraki
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Parts of Kyogle
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Fingal Head
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Billinudgel
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Uki
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Bungawalbin
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Tumbulgum
You can check the latest on the NSW SES website.
Collopy says Brisbane not expected to see rainfall totals surpassing 2022 levels
The Bureau of Meteorology’s Matthew Collopy has been asked about the likelihood that Queenslanders wake up tomorrow and TC Alfred is still not here, and has slowed further?
He said all the modelling shows “it will still be erratic movement as the system approaches the coast”.
As [cyclones] interact with the coastal boundary, there is usually slow movement or movement north or south of the track, as Alfred has done over the past few days. But that modelling work all shows the system continuing to move west and our track at the moment follows the consensus, or the sort of average of those model outputs, so that is the best information and we’re updating it every hour.
He said Brisbane is not expected to see rainfall totals above what was experienced in 2022.
My understanding is the 2022 figures were higher than 800mm over the sort of two or three days of this event … We may see some spot values in this event that are higher than that, but I don’t expect them to be as high as what we saw in 2022.
With that, the press conference wrapped up.
Queensland premier confident in water supply
Asked what people should do if water supplies run out, David Crisafulli said he was “confident” people had adequately prepared:
I’m confident people have put in place the steps they need and people have gone to a lot of [efforts] in making sure they have bottled water …
From our end of the bargain we are confident that, working with local government, that we will be able to keep the continuity of water supply for as long as possible.
Crisafulli confident in capacity of pre-positioned assets
David Crisafulli weighed in on the evacuations in northern NSW, after the premier Chris Minns said there was only so many boats.
In the event of some sort of mass inundation, particularly on the Gold Coast, is he confident of having capacity?
The Queensland premier said a lot of assets had been pre-positioned:
I spoke a few days ago and said we put people on the coast and Redlands, and it turned out to be the right location. On the back of it, we have confidence that individuals will handle themselves as they need tomorrow.
Crisafulli says majority of people doing right thing as people rescued from surf
The Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, is now taking questions from reporters.
Asked to give a message to those who are still going out to look at beaches, the premier said:
If you don’t value your own self-preservation, value the preservation of the person who will have to go and rescue you and your family member who will have to get a knock on the door to advise them of the horrendous news of what’s happened to you.
But he stressed this was a “minority” of the population, and the “majority of people have responded brilliantly”.
Putting yourself in a hazardous situation, being in the surf on the coast, is not a smart option at the moment.
Ergon spokesperson outlines power outage status
An Ergon spokesperson says of the 40,000 current power outages, 35,000 are on the Gold Coast and 5,000 in Redlands and the islands.
He said staff had to demobilise at 10pm last night due to the wind strength.
It was unsafe. We’ll remobilise, hopefully later today depending on the wind strength across all the impacted areas and will continue to do so.
He said there were 1,200 staff ready to assess the full damage, “likely tomorrow” and into early Sunday.
We’ve got hundreds of lines down across the network. Assume they’re all live. Don’t go anywhere near them.
SES has moved from preparation to response phase
Queensland SES chief officer Mark Armstrong said it has moved from the preparation phase to the response phase.
In the last 24 hours, there has been 1,300 requests for assistance.
Yesterday, they were largely in terms of preparation assistance with sandbagging [but now] it is now emergency assistance, particularly for fallen trees, where access has been restricted by vegetation and where there’s been structural issues in homes – particularly leaky roofs and broken windows and so on.
He said the SES had facilitated the distribution of more than one million sandbags to LGA’s across the region.
Queensland Fire Department commissioner Stephen Smith was up next. He said the department had responded to 60 cyclone-related incidents with “no water rescues or evacuations currently required.”
However, there was a rescue this morning in the Currimbin Valley where two people were trapped in a bedroom after a tree fell on their home.
Firefighters used saws to rescue those two people and they were handed over to QAS and we’re pleased to indicate they only had relatively minor injuries.
He said more than 180 specialist swift-water rescue firefighters remain in place in more than 50 locations, with an additional 300 personnel engaged.
Near-misses with minor injuries, Chelepy says
Shane Chelepy said a number of trees had damaged homes and cars on the Gold Coast, and there has been “a number of near-misses” with a few minor injuries.
We are now preparing for the flash flooding and heavy riverine flooding … If you know you have to leave, prepare for that, understand when you have to leave and where you’re going to go.
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