Australia’s prime minister has told residents along the country’s east coast to “hope for the best, but prepare for the worst” as a tropical cyclone nears landfall, bringing violent winds that have prompted mass evacuation orders and cut off electricity to 80, 000 homes.
Tropical Cyclone Alfred was 125km (78 miles) east of Brisbane city on Friday afternoon, crawling towards the densely populated coastline at “walking speed” and is expected to make landfall early on Saturday, government forecasts said.
“When nature does its worst, Australians are at our best. We rally. We lift each other up. We look out for our neighbours”, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters.
Bureau of Meteorology manager Matt Collopy said the storm was expected to weaken as it approached Brisbane.
“This will mean that destructive winds are unlikely for Brisbane itself, but damaging wind gusts up to 120km/h (75mph) are expected and they will develop quickly as the system approaches”, he said.
Al Jazeera’s Sarah Clarke, reporting from Brisbane, said the “slow-moving” storm made it possible for big and densely populated areas of Australia to prepare and evacuate.
She said while Brisbane is still calm, the situation on the eastern coast of the country is “deteriorating” as the storm approaches, with huge waves reported in the Gold Coast.
In northern New South Wales, the State Emergency Service personnel were assisting police in the search for a missing man, after the truck he was driving was washed off a bridge, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
The man initially managed to climb a tree near the riverbank but was later spotted being swept away and gone underwater.
Thousands evacuated and in the dark
Some four million people live in the path of the cyclone straddling the state border of Queensland and New South Wales.
About 80, 000 homes were left in the dark across the two states as damaging winds uprooted trees and brought down power lines, officials and utility companies said, as repair crews tried to restore electricity amid strong winds.
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said the storm already “packed a punch”, warning conditions would get worse as it approached land on Saturday morning.
Images from the AFP news agency showed a white yacht blown into the rocks after snapping its moorings at Point Danger on the Gold Coast.
Two people made “a lucky escape” after a large gum tree crashed through the roof of a house in rural Currumbin Valley, the Queensland Ambulance Service said.
State Emergency Service acting chief superintendent Stuart Fisher said 19, 000 people had been ordered to evacuate their New South Wales homes by noon or risk being trapped by floodwater.
There was particular concern for the town of Lismore, which was engulfed by record 14-metre (46-feet) floodwaters after heavy rains in 2022.
Many residents have spent the past three days fortifying their homes with sandbags, tying down loose furniture and stocking up on food and water.
Alfred would be the first to make landfall in that part of Australia since 1974, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
