Queensland authorities have ordered residents to take shelter as Cyclone Alfred nears, while the NSW Northern Rivers region is already experiencing flooding. Follow our live coverage.
Queensland authorities have ordered residents to take shelter as Cyclone Alfred nears, while the NSW Northern Rivers region is already experiencing flooding. Follow our live coverage.
If you’re just joining us, here’s what you need to know
- Tropical Cyclone Alfred was downgraded to a tropical low earlier on Saturday morning, but warnings remain in place for severe rain and flooding.
- Landfall is now expected at 1pm local time (2pm daylight saving time) north of Brisbane.
- Brisbane and the Gold Coast will be hit with heavy rainfalls today.
- Floods are expected in Lismore and Bellingen in northern NSW.
- One man remains missing after his car was swept off a bridge yesterday.
- About 300,000 homes across northern NSW and South East Queensland remain without power – 250,000 of which are in Queensland. In NSW it’s 42,600.
- Several communities also have no telecommunications access.
You can also keep an eye on river levels, including Lismore and Bellingen, here.
Kitesurfers are making the most of hectic conditions on the Gold Coast, despite ongoing warnings from authorities to avoid the water.
One surfer, Scott, headed down to the beach at Currumbin after his internet and power went out at home a few streets away.
“It’s a bit wild. A bit too gusty,” he said as a mate took off metres into the air over a wave nearby.
Neither was concerned about the dangers.
“It’s about picking the right tools – this is a smaller kite,” Scott said. “Between us, we’ve got about 60 years’ experience.”
More than a dozen people, including children, were braving the sand sprays and heavy winds at the beach until a storm hit about 2pm Queensland time.
Authorities continue to urge people to be cautious and stay inside until Alfred passes.
As we posted a little while ago, ex-tropical cyclone Alfred has stalled off the coast near Maroochydore, according to the latest Bureau of Meteorology forecast maps, and is now expected to reach the mainland later this afternoon.
The bureau says the tropical low is moving slowly and is sitting within 20 kilometres off the coast, 65 kilometres north-east of Brisbane and 40 kilometres south-east of Maroochydore, with sustained wind speeds of 55km/h.
It’s a marked difference from what was earlier predicted – the storm was initially categorised as a category 2 cyclone and was expected to bring gale force winds of 155km/h to Brisbane’s CBD.
Even so, Alfred still brings life-threatening risks with several NSW Northern Rivers regions, including Mullumbimby, Bellingen and Lismore, already experiencing serious flooding.
More rain is expected across the weekend.
As ex-tropical cyclone Alfred moves north of Brisbane and turns inland, the focus turns to flood risks, fierce winds and hundreds of thousands of people without power.
Our photographers have been on the ground capturing these moments on Saturday.
Brisbane Airport is expected to reopen tomorrow, having ceased operations late Thursday as Cyclone Alfred approached.
Flights were suspended about 4pm Thursday, a day after Gold Coast Airport closed. Sunshine Coast Airport closed last night.
“Work is under way now to restart operations at Brisbane Airport,” an airport spokesperson said.
“This will take some time as airlines re-position aircraft from around the country and staff are stood up.
“Please do not come to the airport until you have a booking on a flight that is confirmed to depart.”
Gold Coast Airport also planned to reopen Sunday “if safety and weather conditions allow”.
Sunshine Coast Airport, closer to the weather system, has not provided an update.
The ex-tropical cyclone, which was downgraded from a category 1 as it struck Bribie Island off the coast north of Brisbane on Saturday morning, has not yet made landfall on the mainland.
This is because, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, it has “stalled”.
“We have seen very little change in the position of the system through the course of Saturday,” said the bureau’s Miriam Bradbury.
“It’s still lingering off Bribie Island, essentially stalled for the moment as an ex-tropical cyclone.”
The BoM’s latest map has it looking to cross the coast at roughly 4pm (local time).
To Bellingen, where residents are anxiously watching the rising Bellinger River.
Lyle Condon, a firefighter with NSW Fire and Rescue in the South Bellingen township, said the station had a fire truck on each side of town doing reconnaissance.
“People can flag us down if they see us,” Condon said. “We’re trying to be visible in case anyone needs help.”
Condon said firefighters had enacted a flood plan and parked a Fire and Rescue vehicle at the Rural Fire Service in North Bellingen while the RFS had parked a truck at the fire station in town.
Bellingen is no stranger to floods because the Dorrigo plateau attracts a lot of rain, which then rushes down the mountainside into a narrow channel.
The last big flood in Bellingen was in 2022 and there were particularly bad floods in 2001 and 2009.
The search for a man swept into floodwaters in northern NSW yesterday is ongoing, NSW Police confirmed.
The man’s 4WD was swept off a bridge about 25km north east of Dorrigo in the hinterland of the Mid North Coast yesterday. He initially managed to get out of the vehicle and secure himself to a tree branch about 30 metres from the river bank, but he was swept away about 3pm and hasn’t been seen since.
Local police, Fire and Rescue NSW personnel and SES members conducted a search of the area but had to withdraw yesterday as river levels continued to rise.
Acting Coffs/Clarence Police District Commander Detective Chief Inspector Guy Flaherty said the search efforts had been hampered by weather conditions.
“We are dealing with an evolving, dynamic weather event which presents unique search and rescue challenges,” he said.
“The search and the assessment of the area has been ongoing by local police … but we will only be looking at where we can safely put our SES and police into those areas.”
Some wild scenes at Kirra Beach on the Gold Coast, where people were enjoying a giant mudslide yesterday – the day before the storm hit.
Everyone from the prime minister, both state premiers and the acting Gold Coast mayor have urged people to be cautious and stay inside.
It is one to file in the don’t-try-this-at-home category, or at least the don’t-try-this-today category.
About 340,000 properties are now without power across northern NSW and South East Queensland.
In Queensland, about 300,000 properties are experiencing outages, including 130,000 on the Gold Coast, 48,000 in Brisbane and 48,000 in the Redland Bay area.
Pumping stations at Alexandra Hills and Mount Cotton had earlier lost power, which was affecting water supplier Seqwater’s ability to pump treated water into the area, but crews have managed to get a generator working at pumping stations south of Brisbane.
In an update at about 12pm Queensland time, Seqwater said an earlier notice to conserve water had now been lifted.
Meanwhile, Essential Energy, the distributor in the Northern Rivers Region of NSW said there were just over 42,600 homes and businesses without power in communities between Tweed Heads and Grafton, as of 11am.
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli earlier described the power outages across the state’s south-east as the worst in a decade.
“The work needed to reconnect that is significant … Queenslanders need to know that right now there are damage assessments being done and already crews are being mobilised to get that done.”
There are also widespread mobile phone outages, with Telstra reporting service disruptions right across the regions affected by Alfred.
The M1 Pacific motorway has reopened in both directions from Chinderah to Bangalow.
The road was closed at 8am this morning due to the risk of flooding from ex-tropical cyclone Alfred.
Road closures are still in place along Raleigh to Dorrigo Mountain and Bruxner Highway due to landslides and fallen trees.
Several local roads are also closed due to flooding. A full list of affected routes can be found on Live Traffic NSW.
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