By Renju Jose
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Thousands of residents in Australia’s east were ordered to evacuate ahead of Tropical Cyclone Alfred’s landfall on Saturday as the storm brought heavy rains, huge waves and strong winds that cut off power, eroded beaches and closed airports.
Alfred has been moving slowly toward the coast raising concerns it could result in a longer and prolonged period of heavy rainfall. The system is still expected to land as a Category 2 storm north of Brisbane, Australia’s third-most populous city, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
Wind gusts of more than 100 kph (62 mph) smashed the coastal border regions of the states of Queensland and New South Wales overnight, while the storm sits around 200 km (124 miles) offshore, the weather bureau said.
“Overnight we saw it packed a punch,” Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said.
“You will continue to see the winds during the course of today but then there is that rain and often in cyclones, that rainfall, lots of it in a short window can also be really problematic,” Crisafulli told ABC News.
More than 20,000 homes in the tourist city of Gold Coast are without power, he added.
Television footage showed surfers riding in the huge seas and people strolling near the beaches, forcing officials to warn residents to stay indoors or prepare to evacuate when asked.
“This isn’t a time for sightseeing or for seeing what it’s like to experience these conditions firsthand. Please stay safe. Be sensible,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
Albanese told reporters that 120 defence personnel would help the emergency crews with rescue and relief efforts.
FLOOD IMPACT
Heavy rains drenched some regions in northern New South Wales, with more than 400 mm (15.8 inches) dumped over the last 48 hours, exceeding the mean total for March, data showed, as residents scrambled to save properties from possible flooding.
New South Wales business owner Thomas Gough has been busy putting sandbags at his shop in Lismore, a rural town of about 700 km (435 miles) north of Sydney devastated by major floods in 2022.
“It’s a beautiful place to live most of the time, but it feels like we have one-in-100-year events every five years – there’s nothing we can do about it,” Gough told ABC News.
Brisbane Airport shut down operations on Thursday afternoon while public transport in the city has been suspended. More than 1,000 schools in southeast Queensland and 280 in northern New South Wales have been closed.
Alfred has been called by officials a “very rare event” for Brisbane, Queensland’s state capital, with the city last hit by a cyclone more than half a century ago in 1974. The city of around 2.7 million had near misses from cyclones in 1990 and 2019.
(Reporting by Renju Jose; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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