Authorities in Brisbane say 20,000 properties in the city are at risk of flooding due to storm surges or flooding as tropical cyclone Alfred continues its ominous trucks towards the populated southeast Queensland coast.
A tracking map updated on Wednesday morning shows that Alfred maintains its strength, speed and path to landing.
It is still on track to reach the coastline as a Category 2 storm around 1am on Friday, somewhere between the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane. This model also shows Alfred, who may be just south of Brisbane.
The culmination scheduled for early Friday is a particular concern for people in the waterside community.
Late Tuesday, Brisbane mayor Adrian Schlinner said: “We have updated new modeling that showed that 20,000 properties across Brisbane could be affected by storm surges or floods.
“These 20,000 properties can experience everything from mild flooding in the yard to substantial flooding within the home.”
Brisbane, a city of 2.5 million people, was heavily flooded three times in 15 years.
Schlinner said the “most at-risk” areas are beachside communities, including Nudgee Beach and Brighton, and low suburbs near rivers and streams, including Windsor, Ashgrove, Morningside and Rockley.
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The Weather Service warns that winds of damage and destruction, a more unusual threat to Brisbane people, could begin on Wednesday. By Thursday afternoon, those gusts could reach 155km/h.
The service began to close in Brisbane 48 hours before Alfred's predicted intersection, but it was still “normal business” for supermarkets, state schools and other important services on Wednesday morning.
There were long lines in the sandbags as residents prepared their homes for the unusual phenomenon of tropical cyclones in major cities outside the tropical region.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to join Queensland authorities at the disaster planning meeting starting Wednesday.
The storm slowly moved southward from the coral sea for about two weeks, predicting it on Tuesday afternoon.
“Current forecasts are that the system is being strengthened to a high-end Category 2 system before it lands on Thursday evening or Friday morning,” the department said Wednesday.
“The chances of reaching low-end Category 3 strength before the system lands cannot be ruled out, but the risk remains low.”
The system is moving to approximately 11 km/h to track it towards the coast.
