As it happened: Brisbane on Monday, March 3

City workers on the hunt for transistor radios were disappointed on Monday afternoon as retailers had already sold out, while in the suburbs bottled water and batteries were being stripped from supermarket shelves.

Ahead of the possible arrival of Tropical Cyclone Alfred, all three city JB Hi-Fi stores were out of stock, as were Officeworks and Big W.

Empty shelves at Coles Carindale.

A sales assistant at JB Hi-Fi’s Albert Street store suggested ordering online from Amazon, with the caveat that delivery ahead of the cyclone might be difficult.

The Bunnings store in Newstead was currently out of battery-operated radios, although larger and more costly items using charging ports were available.

Residents have been advised to have a battery-operated radio on hand to receive updates should internet and electricity go down during the cyclone.

Premier David Crisafulli urged residents to ensure they had bottled water and batteries on hand, prompting a rush on supermarkets on Sunday and Monday.

Bottled water was nearly sold out at Coles in Westfield Carindale and at Woolworths in Kenmore this morning.

Read more here.

Thanks for joining us for our live coverage of the news today – a day dominated by preparation for the expected arrival of Cyclone Alfred later this week. We’ll be back tomorrow morning.

If you’re just catching up now, here are a few of the major stories that made headlines today:

Modelling showing Cyclone Alfred crossing the south-east Queensland coast has firmed, prompting a simple message from Premier David Crisafulli: “Now’s the time to prepare.”

Bottled water and batteries were being stripped from supermarket shelves – but Crisafulli said there was no harm in preparing for the worst and then not needing what was bought.

It’s unusual for cyclones to hit the coast of south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales, but it does happen. Here are some of the cyclones that have hit over the last few hundred years.

And here’s what you can do to stay safe and secure your home.

Don’t want to think about cyclones? Read about the Coorparoo street party complete with sausage sizzles and ice cream that set the stage for a fierce bidding war over a 1930s home.

Meanwhile, the Oscars ceremony paid worthy tribute to the power of the silver screen, with Anora winning best picture and Mikey Madison and Adrien Brody taking out the best actor awards.

And a privately owned robot has landed on the moon on its first attempt, with one executive declaring: “We got some moon dust on our boots.”

See you tomorrow.

It is unusual for cyclones to hit the coast of south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales, but it does happen.

The last tropical cyclone to cross the south-east Queensland coast was ex-Tropical Cyclone Zoe in 1974, which arrived less than two months after Cyclone Wanda caused the catastrophic 1974 Brisbane floods.

Northern New South Wales has not been on cyclone watch since Nancy, which brushed the coast near Byron Bay in 1990.

“It is not unprecedented and I am asking Queenslanders to be ready for it – history shows it can happen,” Premier David Crisafulli said this afternoon.

Read the full story on the biggest storms that have hit the region in the last few hundred years – from the one that caused the Great Brisbane Flood of 1893 to the ex-tropical cyclones we’ve seen more recently.

If you missed Premier David Crisafulli’s earlier media conference at the Emergency Services complex at Kedron, we’ve got the video here:

Wendy writes that she’s holidaying on the 41st floor of the Q1 Tower at Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast – Australia’s tallest building – and has sent us photos of her beach views.

“Watching the huge swell, rain coming in sideways and the building starting to sway a bit. Not quite what I was expecting from a holiday on the GC!” she adds.

View from Q1.Credit: Wendy

View from Q1.Credit: Wendy

Want to share your view of preparations for Cyclone Alfred? Send them to us with the form below.

Earlier, we reported that there was a rush on sandbags at the Newmarket depot on the northside. We’ve also heard reports of people being turned away after queuing for more than an hour.

Residents collect sandbags from a council depot in Morningside on Monday.Credit: Dan Peled

This afternoon, Brisbane City Council said that due to overwhelming demand, sandbags were temporarily unavailable at Newmarket and Lota.

Instead they’ve directed residents to the other three depots, where they said 60,000 sandbags were available for collection:

• Darra - 38 Shamrock Road, Darra
• Morningside - 9 Redfern Street, Morningside (closest alternative for Lota)
• Zillmere - 33 Jennings Street, Zillmere (closest alternative for Newmarket)

Read more about how to prepare for Cyclone Alfred here.

Brisbane City Council says all CityCats and KittyCats will be suspended from Monday night until further notice amid preparations for Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

Eleven CityCats will be taken from the river and placed on hardstands and the remaining 16 will be stored inside protected docks.

The five KittyCats will be securely moored at a marina.

All CityCat, as well as KittyCat, services will be suspended from Monday night.Credit: Courtney Kruk

The last CityCat services will depart Northshore Hamilton and University of Queensland at 10.15pm tonight and the last KittyCat services will leave by 11.40pm.

All 22 terminals between UQ St Lucia and Northshore Hamilton will close at midnight.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said he understood the decision “will inconvenience people, but the safety of our passengers, crew and vessels must be a top priority”.

“We will be working closely with our partner River City Ferries to ensure this important work can be completed as quickly as possible,” he said.

“The decision comes after Maritime Safety Queensland chief officer Tony Wulff this afternoon advised vessels on the water should be made safe and secure.”

City workers on the hunt for transistor radios were disappointed on Monday afternoon as retailers had already sold out, while in the suburbs bottled water and batteries were being stripped from supermarket shelves.

Ahead of the possible arrival of Tropical Cyclone Alfred, all three city JB Hi-Fi stores were out of stock, as were Officeworks and Big W.

Empty shelves at Coles Carindale.

A sales assistant at JB Hi-Fi’s Albert Street store suggested ordering online from Amazon, with the caveat that delivery ahead of the cyclone might be difficult.

The Bunnings store in Newstead was currently out of battery-operated radios, although larger and more costly items using charging ports were available.

Residents have been advised to have a battery-operated radio on hand to receive updates should internet and electricity go down during the cyclone.

Premier David Crisafulli urged residents to ensure they had bottled water and batteries on hand, prompting a rush on supermarkets on Sunday and Monday.

Bottled water was nearly sold out at Coles in Westfield Carindale and at Woolworths in Kenmore this morning.

Read more here.

Cyclone Alfred is on track to impact areas between Tewantin on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast and Grafton in northern New South Wales, according to the weather bureau’s latest modelling.

Firstly, damaging wind gusts up to 120km/h are expected to hit the region from late Wednesday.

Heavy and “locally intense” rain is expected to follow, with Alfred currently predicted to cross the coast late on Thursday.

“We have currently got a flood watch current four areas from around the Bundaberg area, south to the border, and that includes catchments from the Mary River through the Sunshine Coast rivers, including the Brisbane River catchment and down to our border catchment areas of the Logan and Albert rivers, and including Gold Coast creeks and rivers,” a bureau spokeswoman said.

“This situation continues to be an evolving situation.”

The current modelling shows that Cyclone Alfred will make landfall somewhere between K’gari Island (formerly Fraser Island) and the Queensland-NSW border, with Brisbane in the firing line on Thursday and Friday.

Here is the latest map from the weather bureau, showing Alfred’s predicted path:

The latest tracking map for Cyclone Alfred, released just before lunchtime on Monday, March 3.Credit: BoM

“The exact timing, the exact location, the exact intensity, all of those models will differ,” Premier David Crisafulli told reporters this afternoon.

“The one thing that the bureau is telling us consistently is that the likelihood of it crossing the coast remains really high.”