‘Off the charts’: Residents queue ‘hours’ for sandbags, brace for Cyclone Alfred
Tropical Cyclone Alfred is careening towards Australia’s east coast, with some of the first major effects expected on Thursday.
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Tropical Cyclone Alfred is set to cross the Queensland coast around midday Friday, as millions of residents there and in northern NSW brace for impact.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) on Thursday morning noted the system had slowed down – travelling westwards at a mere 7km/h.
Though Alfred had been predicted to make landfall potentially as early as late Thursday, it is now forecast to cross land between Coolangatta and Maroochydore – with Brisbane right in the middle of that zone – during Friday.
RELATED: Follow our live Cyclone Alfred coverage here
Communities in Queensland and NSW have been warned they have “hours, not days” to prepare, amid reports of empty supermarket shelves, panic buying and high demand for sandbags.
“You now no longer have days to relocate or evacuate, you only have hours,” NSW SES Deputy Commissioner Deb Platz told ABC News Breakfast.
“So, please, if you’re in these areas, where we’re going to see flooding, please make sure you pay attention to the warnings and make your plans now.”
One Bunnings store in Brisbane told customers it was out of several crucial items like torches, jerry cans, generators, power banks, sandbags and water jugs.
“We are so sorry,” a sign outside the store read.
Parts of northern NSW are also bracing for impact of rain and gale-force winds, including the flood-ravaged town of Lismore.
Angus Hines, a meteorologist at the bureau, said Alfred was still sitting about 600km east of the country – in line with the Queensland, NSW border – but was now moving west.
“Alfred is likely to reach southeast Queensland either very late in the day on Thursday or very early in the day on Friday,” he said.
“The most likely track that Alfred will take suggests a crossing between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, likely as a category 2 tropical cyclone.”
MORE:Named: Aus rich, celebs to be hit by Cyclone Alfred
The BOM said warning zones stretched from Double Island Point in Queensland to Yamba in NSW, including Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Byron Bay and Ballina.
More than half a million homes could be damaged if Alfred makes landfall in South East Queensland, state government modelling has suggested, as communities in the region brace for impact.
Brisbane City Council has estimated 20,000 homes could be affected by storm surge or flooding.
The BOM predicts Alfred will bring gales with damaging wind gusts of up to 120km/h, life-threatening flash flooding and intense rainfall.
Waves of up to 10m have been recorded off parts of Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
“We’re likely to see the strongest impacts close to (Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast) or to the south, as the heaviest rain and strongest winds generally wrap around that southern flank of a tropical cyclone,” BOM meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said.
“Damaging to destructive wind gusts are expected, heavy to locally intense rainfall and flooding, as well as the coastal hazards we’re already seeing developing.”
A cyclone watch has also been issued in northern NSW, for the first time since 1990.
MORE:1.88m Aussie homes in path of Cyclone Alfred’s fury
Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie announced the emergency declarations on Tuesday – which come into effect from midnight – allowing essential businesses to resupply around the clock.
“This includes shops, health care services, chemists, warehouses, transport depots and hardware supply businesses,” he said.
“Our primary goal is to supercharge the food and essential supply chains that are set to be affected by Cyclone Alfred.”
Sandbag demand in Brisbane ‘off the charts’
There has been “unprecedented demand” for sandbags across South East Queensland as residents ready their homes for Cyclone Alfred to make landfall.
The Courier-Mail reports Brisbane residents have begun to wait “several hours” with their cars at sandbagging stations across the city.
Brisbane Mayor Adrian Schrinner said 74,000 sandbags were supplied on Monday alone.
“To put in perspective, in the 2022 flood, which was obviously a devastating natural disaster, the maximum supply in one day was 37,000,” Mr Schrinner said.
“So we’ve had demand that’s been off the charts.”
Federal Aged Care Minister Anika Wells said Brisbane City Council had not prepared enough sandbags for residents trying to protect their homes.
“I think one of the lessons out of the 2022 floods was that we should have 150,000 sandbags in the city at any time where they need to be deployed,” Ms Wells told radio station 4BC.
“And they were not ready, they were not ready.”
Ms Wells claimed residents in some areas had been queuing overnight at stations in order to get in first.
“Locals have told me that they have been in to collect them overnight and when people have gone in at sunrise this morning they weren’t there. Now there is a big queue,” she said.
One woman from Brookfield told ABC Radio Brisbane she’d been in a queue for sandbags for four hours.
“I’m almost four hours in the queue along with many, many other Brisbane people, and thought a good idea would be before you leave home, grab a snack, because you might be stuck like me,” she said.
“They’re running out of time. If it’s overkill, well, we’re all safe, aren’t we, but it’s better to over prepared than under.”
Mr Schrinner told residents who might wish to beat the queues for pre-filled sandbags to bring a shovel with them, and fill their own.
In NSW, SES Assistant Commissioner Nicole Hogan said emergency partners were working hard to ensure communities were best prepared for the potential impacts.
“Assets including communication equipment, high clearance vehicles, aircraft and support personnel have now been deployed to the Northern Rivers and Mid North Coast ahead of the Tropical Cyclone Alfred making landfall on Thursday or Friday,” she said.
“These volunteers are highly trained flood rescue and storm operators, and they bring with them a series of general purpose, light storm and medium storm vehicles.”
“Sandbagging supplies are actively being restocked with location points available on the NSW SES website and advertised on local social media pages.”
‘Anxiously watching’: Huge Cyclone call made
Even though South East Queensland’s dams are almost full, not a single litre of water will be released until Alfred’s predicted 600mm of rain starts to fall.
“We don’t always know when and where rain will fall,” a Seqwater spokesperson told The Courier-Mail.
“Our 24/7 Flood Operations Centre is mobilised and – pending rainfall – is prepared to make controlled, gated releases later this week if required.”
MORE:1.88m Aussie homes in path of cyclone’s fury
Though Wivenhoe Dam is 86 per cent full, Somerset Dam 80 per cent, North Pine Dam just 1.2 per cent below capacity, Seqwater said “flood storage compartments” were above the nominal 100 per cent levels, and remained fully available.
“Specialist flood engineers will continue to monitor and act in response to rainfall and inflows in the catchment,” the spokesperson said.
“Seqwater has several early preparation measures underway including optimising the SEQ Water Grid, maximising local water serves and stockpiling water treatment chemicals to prepare for potential road closures.”
The Gold Coast’s Hinze Dam is currently 99.5 per cent to capacity.
On Monday, Queensland Premier David Crisafulli urged Seqwater to be more transparent about the plan for water releases, “because you’ve got a whole heap of people who are anxiously watching the forecast”.
“Obviously the reason why the questions are so valid is there is water in the system at the moment and you do have catchments that have had rain, so on the back of it, that has to be factored into their modelling,” Mr Crisafulli said.
“We’re asking them to explain that – because that’s important to people from the point of release to when you might see that in the CBD, there’s a few days in there.”
Cyclone could drive up insurance premiums, experts warn
Physical climate risk analysis company Climate Valuation has warned homeowners in areas affected by Cyclone Alfred may face costs greater than just repairing flood or wind damage and coastal inundation.
Natural disasters could drive up insurance premiums as well – a trend that is only expected to worsen as climate change impacts the severity and patterns of cyclonic activity, The Climate Risk Group CEO, Dr Karl Mallon, said.
“In 2023 our modelling identified this exact region of southern Queensland and northern NSW as being at growing risk from tropical cyclones, as warming sea temperatures drive cyclones further south,” Dr Mallon said.
“Insurers are also starting to understand these trends. It is only to be expected that insurance premiums will rise in areas where the risk of damage from cyclones increases.”
“We’re fortunate that Cyclone Alfred is only a category two storm,” Dr Mallon continued. “However, our modelling suggests that higher intensity cyclones are increasingly likely for these areas and should they hit, the damage will be devastating. Homes in these regions simply aren’t built to withstand high intensity storms like these.
“These results are a wake-up call for governments to start understanding this risk, change building codes and invest in adaptation measures to protect people and property.”
Up to 660,000 homes could be damaged, modelling suggests
According to a Severe Wind Hazard Assessment report, conducted by the federal government’s Geoscience Australia in 2022, up to 660,000 homes could be in the firing line in the event of a category two cyclone.
One potential scenario – posed by Geoscience Australia “to better understand the potential impacts of severe tropical cyclones on population centres and elements of critical infrastructure in Queensland – outlined the result of a system similar to Alfred crossing the coast near Bribie Island, tearing through Brisbane and then the Gold Coast before leaving the mainland.
“The main impacts are concentrated at the southern end of Moreton Bay around Macleay and Russell Islands, and into the northern suburbs of Gold Coast City Council near Ormeau and Pimpama, with widespread areas of moderate damage,” the report read.
“Parts of Macleay and Russell Islands sustain extensive damage from winds, but would also likely sustain substantial damage from storm tide in this scenario.”
If such a situation were to happen, the report predicted 23,000 homes in the Redlands region, roughly 250,000 homes in Brisbane, and 155,000 homes on the Gold Coast would sustain some level of damage.
“Where there are heavily urbanised areas, there is typically lower damage due to the lower incident wind speeds likely to be experienced,” the report read.
“That contrasts with areas in the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast hinterland, where local accelerations over the steep topography will amplify the level of damage to houses in those areas.
“A Tropical Cyclone passing over the northern council areas will result in overall lower damage, but that may still be overwhelming for that community.”
Millions told to brace for days without power
Energex regional field delivery general manager Kev Lavender on Monday said South East Queensland’s four million residents should be prepared to go without power for at least three days after Alfred hits.
“Energex has been preparing for Cyclone Alfred since last week and the community can rest assured that we’re ready to respond to anything Mother Nature throws at us,” Mr Lavender said.
Residents on the Gold Coast have been told to plan for a week or more without power.
“We saw that in the recent storms on the Gold Coast last year. Anything less than that, that’s a bonus,” Energex area manager Renee Kath said.
In the event of damaged power lines, Ms Kath said crews will have to wait until it’s safe to begin repairs.
“We will have all available resources on the ground as soon as it’s safely possible to do so and obviously factoring there are areas that are harder to get to such as areas that may have had landslides,” she said.
Supermarket shelves stripped bare
Meanwhile shelves at grocery stores across the South East have started to empty, with reports that bottled water, bread and milk are among the essentials already running low.
Asked if he had concerns about panic buying, Mr Crisafulli said he understood “why Queenslanders want to do that”.
“It is important that people have sufficient food and water,” the Premier said.
“You should be prepared to be without power and should prepare to have your bottled water and you should have your spare batteries, spare charger for your phone, you should have batteries for a radio, you should have all your documents in one location.
“There is no harm in preparing and then not needing it. The harm is in not doing the work and – then when things become in a perilous situation if it gets to it – not being ready.
“So just do the little things, if you do the little things people will get through it.”
The message to supermarkets, Mr Crisafulli noted, “is restock the shelves as much as you can”.
Mr Crisafulli also warned residents against complacency.
“I’ve heard a couple of comments from people saying, ‘That won’t happen here’,” he said.
“Well, history shows it has. Fifty years ago, we had a category two (cyclone) cross the Gold Coast.
“If you do the preparation as an individual, we’ll get through this.”
South of the border, Assistant Commissioner Hogan urged the community to remain calm and support each other during the severe “multi hazard weather event”.
“There’s no need to panic buy, supermarkets have good supply chains and transport routes are currently open,” she said.
“If your community becomes isolated and needs resupply of essential goods, NSW SES will assist with this. Communities should be preparing their properties, staying up to date with the latest warnings and supporting each other during this time.”
– with NCA NewsWire
Originally published as ‘Off the charts’: Residents queue ‘hours’ for sandbags, brace for Cyclone Alfred
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