Brisbane City Council has ordered residents to take shelter immediately as Cyclone Alfred is predicted to cross north of Brisbane overnight. Follow our live coverage.
Brisbane City Council has ordered residents to take shelter immediately as Cyclone Alfred is predicted to cross north of Brisbane overnight. Follow our live coverage.
Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred is lingering over Bribie Island this morning and is expected to make landfall in the next couple of hours.
While the weather system has been downgraded, the Bureau of Meteorology has warned “significant, severe” weather will continue through the morning.
Here’s what you need to know so far:
- Tropical Cyclone Alfred was downgraded to a tropical low earlier on Saturday morning, but warnings remain in place for severe rain and flooding.
- About 300,000 homes across northern NSW and South East Queensland remain without power – 250,000 of which are in Queensland.
- Brisbane and the Gold Coast will be hit with heavy rainfalls today, while Lismore has already begun flooding
- One man remains missing and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said there are “grave concerns” for his safety.
- Several communities also have no telecommunications access.
Many Brisbane residents are this morning asking: “Where did Alfred go?”
For those less familiar with Brisbane, more than eight islands sit off the city’s bayside, the largest of those being North Stradbroke Island, Moreton Island and Bribie Island.
The bay islands essentially saved Brisbane. As Alfred slammed into those islands as a category 1 storm last night, it weakened and became a tropical low. You can see the cluster of small islands off Brisbane’s coast on the right-hand side of this council warnings map:
Here’s how the bureau explains it:
“Tropical Cyclone Alfred reached south-east Queensland’s offshore islands around midnight last night as a Category 1 tropical cyclone,” a bureau spokesperson said.
“On interacting with the islands, the system stalled and began weakening. Wind gusts eased, and as a result, the system dropped below cyclone intensity.
“Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred remains just offshore from the mainland, and is likely to cross the coast between Maroochydore and Bribie Island as a tropical low in the coming hours.
The Gold Coast was not to fortunate, as there are no islands protecting it.
You can track the heights of three rivers in real time with the graphics below – to be automatically updated every 15 minutes.
We have Brisbane River in two places and Wilsons River at Lismore.
The heights of some rivers are measured from sea levels, while others are measured from the river bed. The important thing to look for is how close they are to the minor, moderate and major flood lines.
The State Emergency Service has issued several warnings for Bellingen on the NSW Mid North Coast, with the weather bureau warning that major flooding is possible from this evening.
The Bellinger River has reached major flooding levels at 5.8m, with water levels predicted to climb to 7.5m in the coming hours.
SES Watch and Act orders were issued at 11am for residents in low-lying North Bellingen, with residents told that rapid river rises may cause extensive flooding, isolating them from the major roads.
A Watch and Act is also in place for Bellingen and surrounds, while residents in East Bellingen were told to evacuate by 11am on Saturday.
Major flooding is already occurring at Thora, a small town halfway between Dorrigo and Bellingen.
Bellingen has received over 180mm of rain in the past 24 hours.
It’s pretty incongruous to be seeing fire in the middle of all this rain, but that’s what can happen when an ex-tropical cyclone brings down power lines.
This video, via TikTok, is from last night.
The downgrading of Alfred to an ex-tropical cyclone means South-East Queensland and northern NSW were spared the brunt of damaging winds, but are now copping a deluge of rain.
The Brisbane Times team is based out of a temporary office with a generator in Cannon Hill, where rain has picked up moderately since 9am. It’s heavy, but not extreme yet.
The Sydney Morning Herald has reporters and photographers on the ground in northern NSW and a support crew working around the clock from our office in Sydney.
We’d like to know what you’re seeing from your place. Please send videos and photos through the box below. Please include the suburb you’re in, and attach your details if you’d like to speak to a reporter. Stay safe.
If you’re in Queensland:
If you’re in NSW:
Acting Gold Coast Mayor Donna Gates has told people to stay inside for the next 24 to 36 hours, as authorities begin to assess damage and work to restore power to thousands of homes.
“We have trees down everywhere and powerlines down so we urge people not to go anywhere near those powerlines,” she told the ABC.
“We’ve had a lot of damage to the beachside infrastructure so we’re urging people – don’t go looking at the waves, don’t go near the sand, and certainly don’t take a selfie on the beachside platforms.”
Gates said the city had now reported 120,000 properties without power.
“People think the worst is over, when in fact it’s not – we’re still asking people to stay indoors for the next 24 to 36 hours.”
State Emergency Service Commissioner Mike Wassing said Saturday was ‘D-day’ as continued rainfall caused river rises across the state.
The SES has 131 warnings, 40 of which are emergency warnings, in place across the state. About 20,000 residents are currently under evacuation warnings.
Areas in the Dorrigo region have already received 800mm of rainfall.
There have been 30 flood rescues in the last 24 hours as police continue to search for a man swept away in floodwaters in northern NSW on Friday afternoon.
NSW Deputy Premier Prue Car said the region was dealing with “several disasters at once”.
“It’s not just the onslaught of the actual passing of the ex-tropical cyclone, but of course, the heavy wind and the rainfall and the subsequent flash flooding that we’re seeing in places like Lismore,” she said.
Over 300 schools will remain closed on Monday. An update on whether they will remain closed on Tuesday will be provided later this weekend.
Minister for the North Coast Rose Jackson said there had been major challenges at evacuation centres, including issues with restocking supplies following road closures. A roof was also blown off an unoccupied evacuation centre.
“There are issues with our partner organisations moving food and bedding around. The M1 has been closed for some time, and that does provide some challenges accessing the centres, but we worked through that yesterday and ensured that everyone who turned up to an evacuation centre had access to some food and had access to bedding,” she said.
There are 21 evacuation centres open, which have received nearly 750 people. More than 43,000 homes in NSW are without power as the storm hinders repair efforts.
Minister for Energy and Climate Change Penny Sharpe said it was still unsafe for crews to be sent out to restore electricity.
“We’re still in the middle of this event, and there is still wind, and there is still extreme rain. As you can imagine, having electrical workers in that space is very dangerous,” she said.
Lismore is expected to flood around midday today, the weather bureau has confirmed. Low-lying areas are already underwater, and while the water levels have not breached the levee protecting the city, the river will continue to rise.
“Predictions indicate that there will be rises, and it’s likely to be further flooding,” Wassing said.
Wilsons River is at 9.16m and the levees breach at 10.7m. It reached over 14m in the 2022 floods.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Mick Logan said major flooding in Lismore was likely from midday Saturday, with the CBD forecast to be inundated from this afternoon.
“River levels in the Wilsons River are still rising. There are peaks that are upstream that are yet to come through. That does mean, with the combination of that and further rainfall, the major flooding is likely,” he said.
Lismore has received over 250mm of rain in the past 48 hours causing flash flooding from last night, but the riverine flooding is the bigger risk.
Lismore will flood in the outer areas from midday and the city centre later in the afternoon.
The State Emergency Service and Bureau of Meteorology confirmed the expected flooding in a briefing just now.
It’s not from the rainfall over Lismore, but peaks in the Wilsons River upstream.