Brisbane, Australia CNN —
Millions of residents along Australia’s eastern coast are preparing for the impact of the most southerly cyclone to threaten the region in more than five decades.
Tropical Cyclone Alfred is expected to make landfall late Friday or early Saturday with the strength of a category 1 Atlantic hurricane, after slowing down on its path west toward the city of Brisbane, home to 2.5 million people.
“The risk of course in that slowing down is that it increases in its intensity,” said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, after receiving a briefing from the National Emergency Management Agency Thursday.
The cyclone has already whipped up hazardous waves along the coast, including one measuring a record 12.3 meters (40 feet) on the Gold Coast, a popular tourist strip south of Brisbane.
In northern New South Wales (NSW), around 4,000 homes were without power on Thursday due to downed power lines. Heavy rain was reported in some areas and riverine flooding was already threatening low-lying communities.
Authorities warned millions of residents in the storm’s path to prepare for destructive winds of around 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour), storm surges and flash flooding, prompting hours-long queues for council-provided sandbags.
The last cyclone of a similar strength to cross so far south was Cyclone Zoe back in 1974, which caused major flooding in the city and NSW’s Northern Rivers region.
Brisbane’s population has more than doubled since then, but experts say the worst of Cyclone Alfred could be felt south of the storm’s eye, along popular tourist beaches from the Gold Coast to northern NSW.
“We haven’t seen anything quite like this for a good 50 years,” said Darrell Strauss, coastal management researcher at Griffith University.
“There are areas where storm surge is the biggest problem, and then there’s areas where high waves and coastal erosion and inundation from the sea directly due to the waves are a big problem. So, we’ve got a combination of all of that from Brisbane to the Northern Rivers (of NSW),” Strauss said.
As of Thursday, Cyclone Alfred was around 285 kilometers (177 miles) off the coast, moving west with destructive wind gusts of up to 155 kilometers per hour (96 miles per hour), according to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology (BOM).
Creeks and rivers in northern NSW were expected to burst their banks, threatening more devastation in an area that has endured severe flooding in the last decade.
Three years after the last major flood, some homes are still uninhabitable and residents have lived in temporary housing and tents for far longer than many hoped.
“We know that after the years of trauma that they’ve experienced, the devastating floods, going back to 2017 and of course, 2022, there is a lot of anxiety and distress in the community,” said Rose Jackson, Minister for the North Coast. “Mental health support is available.”
In Brisbane, residents were busy sandbagging their homes and stripping supermarket shelves of food and bottled water as authorities issued warnings about potential flooding.
Modeling showed 20,000 properties across Brisbane could be impacted by storm surge or flash flooding, according to the Lord Mayor’s office.
Beaches in northern NSW and along the Queensland coast were closed, as NSW State Emergency Services (SES) warned of potential storm surges of up to 10 meters (32 feet). It was the state’s first cyclone warning since 1990, the SES said.
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli urged residents near vulnerable coastal areas to follow evacuation orders.
Strong winds were a concern in areas where residents are accustomed to heavy rain, but not necessarily cyclone-strength gales. They were urged to tie down anything that could take flight.
Major sporting events were canceled, flights disrupted, public transport suspended and schools closed in affected areas.
