Cyclone Alfred lingers off Brisbane’s coast, as tracking shows when storm will cross

Follow our live coverage of Cyclone Alfred here.

Flooding across Brisbane in the wake of Cyclone Alfred would be “very different” to previous experiences, the city’s lord mayor has warned, with residents to see more widespread impacts.

More than 46,000 properties had lost power by 3pm on Friday, the day before the cyclone was expected to make landfall and bring the full brunt of its damaging wind gusts of up to 120km/h.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said some people were already in refuge shelters, and other centres would open once needed. He said the RNA Showgrounds in Bowen Hills would be adequate to meet demand.

“In 2011, we had the Mud Army [to help with recovery], and that worked so well because there were parts of the city that were affected by river flood, but there were many parts ... that weren’t affected at all,” he said.

“We’re expecting a more widespread impact right across the city. We’re also expecting a lot of trees to be down as well, and powerlines.”

Alfred’s effects were already being felt across South East Queensland.

As of 3pm, Cyclone Alfred was 125 kilometres east of Brisbane, moving west-south-west about 8km/h, and was expected to cross the coast north of the CBD early on Saturday afternoon.

Parts of the Gold Coast recorded 24-hour rainfall totals of more than 160 millimetres, and 100km/h winds.

Two people were rescued after a large tree fell and trapped them in a Gold Coast bedroom.

Acting Police Commissioner Shane Chelepy said emergency crews were starting to get requests for help, particularly on the coast.

He said there had been 11 search and rescue jobs since Thursday, including for jet ski riders, swimmers and kayakers.

“Now is not the time to be in the surf, and all you’re doing is putting emergency services at risk and yourself at risk,” he said.

Brisbane City Council updated its flood mapping, with about 850 homes added to the 20,000 expected to be affected across the city as the water rose.

Schrinner compared Alfred’s threat with the 2022 Brisbane flood, for which he said there was “next to no warning”.

Bureau of Meteorology Brisbane manager Matthew Collopy said more rain fell in February 2022 than was expected from Alfred – some parts of Brisbane received 1100 metres in three days.

Residents on Springbrook in the Gold Coast Hinterland have been without power, as heavy rain hits the area. Credit: Facebook

The category 2 system may weaken as it hits near Brisbane, but the bureau warned Alfred could linger for more than six hours, causing flash flooding and storm surges.

“In this case it is really large and slow-moving, and that does represent the prospect of some significant rainfall over a long period of time,” Premier David Crisafulli said.

“That rainfall does bring the risk of river and creek flooding.”

Crisafulli earlier said the government hoped to keep roads and bridges open as long as possible, but urged an end to all non-essential travel.

“We want emergency services and essential personnel to be able to still drive,” he said.

Many essential services such as schools, public transport and supermarkets stopped operating, and more than 1000 schools in Queensland were closed until further notice.

All public transport services were cancelled “until further notice”, Translink said, while more than 600 Education Queensland schools would reopen “when it is safe for students to attend”.

Electricity provider Energex warned that conditions were becoming dangerous for crews, and power might not be restored to some premises until early next week.

“We’ve been actively responding to the network outages since yesterday,” Energex CEO Peter Scott said.

“Staff had to demobilise the 10 o’clock last night because the wind strength – it was just too much, it was unsafe.

“We’ll remobilise, hopefully later today, depending on the wind strength across all the impacted areas, and continue to do so.”

As Alfred closed in, residents in the Gold Coast and Redland Bay areas were warned they could see storm surges up to 1.5 metres if the system crossed at high tide.

Brisbane Airport cancelled flights from Thursday afternoon, with Qantas and Jetstar international flights suspended until at least noon on Saturday, and domestic operations until at least Sunday morning.

In a bid to protect water supply, more than 30 water treatment plants were put in place across the region, fortified with back-up generators.

Seqwater reported Hinze Dam on the Gold Coast was spilling, with releases from Wivenhoe and Somerset dams expected within the next two or three days.

There had been confusion from residents living in low-lying areas about whether they could park their cars in shopping centres for free to avoid flooding risks. A Scentre Group spokeswoman said parking was free at Westfield shopping centres in the cyclone warning zone on Thursday, but they could not guarantee safe access or storage of cars during or after cyclone.

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