Cyclone Alfred latest: Rare Category 2 storm nears Australian coast as millions face ‘worst-case scenario’
People on the projected path of Cyclone Alfred have been asked to “act now” and leave before the situation gets worse as the Category 2 storm barrels towards Australia’s southeastern coast.
Alfred is now about 345km east of Brisbane and 315km east of the Gold Coast, according to the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM). It is moving towards the southeast Queensland coast at 16kph.
There’s a concern that Alfred could slow down to 11kph, which could make it “worst case scenario”, Higgins Storm Chasing’s Thomas Hinterdorfer told The Courier-Mail.
The storm is expected to make landfall on Thursday or Friday between north of Brisbane bringing more than half a metre of rain, flooding and destructive winds.
Alfred is the first cyclone to directly impact Brisbane since Nancy in 1990.
“We’re dealing with a very heavily populated part of the state, a state that hasn’t seen a cyclone for many years, in fact, many decades, get this close to the coast,” Queensland premier David Crisafulli said.
