Scaredy cats in category 2: A diary of a cyclone blackout
Thousands of Gold Coasters were left offline and in the dark by Cyclone Alfred.
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We knew the power would probably go out at some point during Cyclone Alfred’s battering of the Gold Coast, so we did what any self-respecting Gen Zs would do — we charged everything.
Phones, laptops, battery packs — fully prepped for survival, work, or at least for scrolling through TikTok when the winds picked up.
But around 7pm on Thursday, right after we’d put dinner in the oven, everything shut off. The fridge stopped humming, the lights went out, and we were plunged into darkness — a lot earlier than expected. By Friday morning, we were one of 23,000 Gold Coast homes without power and facing the uncertainty about when it would return.
Cat-sitting at a friend’s house in Coolangatta while they holidayed overseas, we used our phone torches to start looking for where they stored their candles. It was strange navigating unfamiliar walls in the dark. We found a small Esky, filled it with ice, and added our “essentials” from the fridge: half a bag of cheese, an open carton of almond milk, and some sad pre-prepped potatoes and beans. I immediately started eating the ice cream from the freezer – I couldn’t let it go to waste.
The cat, Boo, spooked by the storm kept purring at our feet. The power being out was inconvenient, sure, but manageable. The real gut punch came Friday morning when we discovered our phone data had crashed. No messages, no emails, no news, no Instagram, no window into the outside world – just a black mirror reflecting my own anxious face.
Before my phone’s service died, the last text I got was from my boss: “FYI, Energex says it’s too dangerous to restore power at the moment, so buckle up. You might be days without.” Great!
Without the internet, I kept walking into rooms without my phone in hand and felt this weird, empty sensation — like I had a limb missing. We couldn’t even get the portable ‘robo vac’ to start so we could clean all the cat hair – we needed an app for that too. I texted my mum and it went through green: “Mum, help! What did you do in the olden days?” She replied, “I don’t know, Hun. We were just bored.”
Desperate for updates, we dug out an actual, physical radio — the kind with an antenna you have to tune. The winds had eased where we were, but the radio kept hammering the same message: ‘Don’t be complacent amid the fluctuating conditions outside.’
We kept busy with books and played a few rounds of Hangman and Pictionary by candlelight. Every so often, I’d pick up my phone and pray for a few minutes of service — but no luck.
I kept instinctively flicking light switches when I entered a room, only to be hit with crushing disappointment every time.
I went to check the weather app and then remembered the weather was happening in 4D right outside my window. My screen time was down 100 per cent and so was my energy. I started to reflect on my scrolling habits — maybe I did have a problem.
By the afternoon, the boredom had me pacing the house like a Sim with low fun levels. Dinner was cold party pies and sausage rolls from the Esky — thankfully, we had tomato sauce. By 8pm, with nothing else to do and no light to see by, we went to bed. The howling winds and rain battered Coolangatta all night, and Boo slept curled up at the end of the bed, wide-eyed and meowing.
Come Saturday morning — 36 hours now without power — we woke to assess the damage from last night’s storm. No structural issues, but the pool had turned a concerning shade of green – I would need to let the owners know.
We had to bin all the meat and dairy products before they started stinking up the house. The radio told us 290,000 homes and businesses across SEQ were without power, and it still wasn’t safe for Energex to start repairs.
By the afternoon, after a steady diet of chips, crackers, and cold brownies, we were desperate for a hot meal. We drove around in search of a McDonald’s with power but had to settle for Red Rooster — and we weren’t the only ones. The drive-thru line was overflowing, and they were only serving snacks and sides. We knew they were probably cooking off everything from the bottom of their thawing freezer — but we didn’t care. Hot chips, gravy, popcorn chicken, and nuggets had never tasted so good.
Soon after, we found a magical pocket of service and quickly sent updates to our family. Our house in Burleigh Waters still had power, and the friends whose house we were cat-sitting for were due back the next day, weather permitting. With their blessing, we fed Boo one last time on Sunday morning and handed the keys to the neighbours — finally heading home, relieved and exhausted.
We waited for a lull in the rain then made our way back - passing through neighbourhoods and small businesses, all eerily dark and still.
We finally reached Burleigh Waters and the house greeted us with the flick of the lights and my phone buzzed to life - I was elated. I dived straight into the endless scroll hungry for updates, memes, anything we’d missed. But the excitement faded faster than I expected. The storm had passed, and just like that, I was right back in the noise. Yet those quiet hours stuck with me, and with so many still without power and Alfred’s destruction leaving a long road to recovery – we knew we were among the lucky ones.
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