Tropical Cyclone Alfred: Toowoomba, Lockyer Valley asked to take threat seriously

Emergency services are pleading with Toowoomba residents to take the potential impacts of Tropical Cyclone Alfred seriously, as they prepare to deal with massive winds and rainfall.

Toowoomba residents have been urged to take the threat of Tropical Cyclone Alfred reaching the Darling Downs seriously, with police giving locals a 36-hour window to get ready for protracted winds and heavy rain.

Disaster management groups and emergency services are already gearing up for when whatever is left of the cyclone reaches the Garden City, which could be as early as Thursday.

The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting a 100 per cent chance of at least 25mm to drop on Toowoomba on Friday.

Panic buying at supermarkets has reportedly already started across the city according to police, who are urging people to take the warnings seriously.

Cyclone Alfred animation Friday

Darling Downs District Officer Doug McDonald said locals should be prepared for going 72 hours without power.

“What I wanted to raise with this particular event, it’s different to what we usually experience with storms,” he said.

“We’re likely to have protracted periods of wind, it won’t just be gusts, it will be really sustained high winds during that period and we know that potentially impacts that power supply very quickly.

“I want people to be prepared and understand that they may be without power for some time during this event.

“My leadership team have been working together closely since yesterday, we met again this morning to work out where we can position our staff to best respond to what we expect will occur during this event.”

The 11am Bureau of Meteorology tracking map.

Superintendent McDonald said flooding in the Lockyer Valley was of particular concern to emergency services, urging people not to travel from Thursday unless necessary.

“Everyone’s aware of the particular wet season we had during 2010 and 2011 and the serious impacts during January of 2011 when we had that significant rain event,” he said.

“Now I can’t predict that it will be anything like that, but we can see that widespread flooding can have a significant impact on our communities, particularly in these vulnerable areas like the Lockyer Valley.

“I really want to highlight to people that if you don’t have to travel from Thursday on, don’t do it.

“It’s generally not the impacts of wind and rain and flood that cause injury and harm to people – we see more deaths on our roads during disaster periods than we do from any other causes.”

State Emergency Service acting southwest director Tony Cooper said residents should take steps like speaking with children, cleaning gutters and preparing an emergency plan.

Toowoomba mayor Geoff McDonald said the Local Disaster Management Group was monitoring the situation, urging residents to check the council’s disaster dashboard for road closures, weather warnings and evacuation sites.

Darling Downs District Officer Doug McDonald. Picture: Kevin Farmer

“For us in the Toowoomba Region, while we certainly won’t have the coastal impacts from TC Alfred, residents should be prepared for the potential of significant rainfall and windy conditions from Friday of this week and into the weekend as the system potentially tracks further west,” he said.

“Residents should take normal precautions such as driving to conditions on our roads, preparing your home for storm-type impacts and having an emergency plan if you live in a location across our region which floods or becomes isolated from flooding should that potentially occur later this week and across the weekend.

“Residents should also check on friends and family who may live in these areas and look out for neighbours and the more vulnerable members of our community.”

Originally published as Tropical Cyclone Alfred: Toowoomba, Lockyer Valley asked to take threat seriously