Tropical Cyclone Alfred news and updates, Friday March 7

Tropical Cyclone Alfred continues to move slowly west at 7km/h towards the southeast Queensland coast.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s latest update says Alfred is currently a category 2 storm and is expected to remain of similar intensity until the centre hits the coast and Islands.

The bureau predicts the centre of Alfred will cross the coast very early Saturday morning, most likely between Noosa and Coolangatta, but impacts of the storm, including damaging winds and huge swells, are already being felt, and heavy rains are expected.

The map indicates Alfred could become a category 1 by the time it passes over Moreton Island at 1am (Queensland time) on Saturday.

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The powerful storm packs a punch with sustained winds near the centre of 95km/h and gusts up to 130km/h.

Alfred is estimated to be 245km east of Brisbane and 230km east northeast of Gold Coast.

WARNING ZONE: A warning zone remains in place for Double Island Point in Queensland to Grafton in NSW, including Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Byron Bay and Ballina but not Grafton.

As weather conditions worsen, Brisbane Airport is preparing to stop all flights from about 4pm local time.

The airport, located right next to Moreton Bay, is already feeling the impact of Cyclone Alfred as it nears. Further south, Gold Coast Airport has already closed.

“Travellers should speak directly to their airlines and not travel to the airport for cancelled flights,” an airport spokesperson said.

“Brisbane Airport will continue to keep its terminals open while passengers and essential airport workers need shelter, for emergency and aeromedical services, for Defence operations, and while it is safe to do so.”

The spokesperson said many airlines are offering their customers the opportunity to change their bookings.

A Qantas spokesperson said all Qantas and Jetstar flights out of Brisbane will be suspended from mid-afternoon Thursday, with international operations suspended until at least midday Saturday local time and domestic operations suspended until at least Sunday morning local time.

They said Qantas and Jetstar flights had already been suspended for the Gold Coast and Ballina.

At the moment, Qantas flights to and from Sunshine Coast (MCY) and Hervey Bay (HVB) continue to operate.

Relocating the South Sydney-Dolphins fixture outside the path of cyclone Alfred was the right thing to do, Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett says.

Bennett has backed the NRL’s decision to move the Friday fixture from Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium to CommBank Stadium in Parramatta instead of calling the match off entirely.

The NRL’s decision has been met with some resistance from the Dolphins camp, with Kodi Nikorima, Mark Nicholls and Kenny Bromwich opting against flying out with the team to Sydney on Wednesday evening.

The trio are concerned about the welfare of family members being left behind, given their homes are in the firing line of the cyclone.

​Read the full story here.​

The shocking scale of Cyclone Alfred as it stalls and expands off the eastern seaboard of Australia has been shown in a radar map.

Alerts and updates continue to pour into areas already being hammered, with the extreme weather front now extended from Bundaberg in Queensland to below Coffs Harbour on the mid-north coast on NSW.

Mapping is showing the storm’s landfall may now extend into Saturday and may hit on a high tide which is likely to smash weather records during the natural disaster.

The Bureau of Meteorology says record wave heights have been recorded off the Gold Coast well before Cyclone Alfred is set to land.

Large swells and powerful waves have been observed along the Queensland coast for several days now, and the wave recorder off the Gold Coast logged a 12.3 metre maximum wave height late on Wednesday - which is a record for that site.

Coastal hazard warnings for damaging surf and abnormally high tides continue to the south of Sandy Cape as the cyclone continues to produce the risk of a significant storm surges.

BOM representatives told reporters at David Crisafulli’s press conference that “we may see sea levels of half one metre above the normal highest astronomical tides”.

“If the system crosses at exactly high tide, there is the risk of seeing storm surges up to 1.5metres, particularly around the Redlands Bay area and the Gold Coast.”

Those in the path of destruction from Cyclone Alfred are being urged to organise their valuable posessions and make sure they are ready to flee is evacuation becomes a reality.

QLD Premier David Crisafulli has covered a range of suggestions for people to organise.

“Get your valuable items together inside, The Premier said.

“If you do have to leave, it’s imperative you’ve got your passport and driver’s licence’s and any of those key identification means because that helps you get back on your feet after an event.

“Do you have bottled water and food? They are the little things that make a world of difference.

“My message to Queenslanders today is that - we will continue in every way, shape and form to explain the system as it comes and as things change.”

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli has doubled down on his counterpart in NSW Chris Minns’s, announcment, saying that Cyclone Alfred’s landing could extend into Saturday.

“I want to address the cyclone intensity. It remains as a Category 2 and obviously we have seen the delay in the system heading towards the coast,” Mr Crisafulli said.

“We have been updated that it could now push into Saturday morning.

“Overnight we saw the system spin around on itself and then it has resumed its journey into the coast so exactly where it will hit and when still remains unknown.

“But all of the modelling continues to show it is coming towards the coast albeit it has pushed into the early hours of Saturday morning.”

The NSW SES are working closely with the ADF as equipment rolls into towns on the north coast ahead of Cyclone Alfred’s arrival.

“We have drones, we have equipment we are bringing including, drones, high clearance vehicles, pumps from Fire and Rescue, said SES boss Stuart Fisher in Lismore.

“The ADF walked into my ERC this morning so they are with us.

“We have everything in place. We have 2500 volunteers plus full-time staff plus the other agencies with us so we think we are prepared.”

The Australian Red Cross are urging people who are able to donate blood to do so as soon as possible with emergency services bracing for injuries in the wake of Cyclone Alfred.

“We are asking people throughout the state of NSW and the nation to roll up their sleeves and give blood,” said a Red Cross representative in Lismore.

“We are already 1000 donations down per day with 22 blood centres closed in this region because of this event. Please, rather than thoughts and prayers, we ask people to roll up your sleeves and give blood.”

The NSW SES have issued a strong warning to residents in NSW to use the remaining hours of Thursday to make crucial decisions about their welfare ahead of Cyclone Alfred’s landfall.

“Today will be their last day to prepare their properties should they wish to stay,” said SES chief Stuart Fisher from Lismore.

“If they don’t feel safe, they should think about moving out.

“When the storm hits, particularly those high winds, it will bring down trees and power lines. I cannot stress enough this is a significant weather event, not like 2022 where we had a single event.

“We had beach erosion which is occurring now, will have the very strong to dangerous and destructive winds over the next 24 to 48 hours followed by torrential rain.

“We are predicting anywhere between 300mm to 400mm of rain but if it stalls it will see an increase in the rainfall.

“It will cause significant flooding on many of the river systems up and down the coast.”