Tropical Cyclone Alfred: Landfall area amended to Redcliffe as SES field thousands of distress calls

The Bureau of Meteorology has now amended the landfall impact zone of Cyclone Alfred to Redcliffe in the City of Moreton Bay, located around 30km north of Brisbane.

Alfred is still moving slowly toward the eastern seaboard coast and is not expected to reach land until the early hours of Saturday morning.

The massive weather front’s ‘eye’ is around 200km off the coast of Queensland as most residents on Queensland and NSW wake up on Friday morning.

Overnight, tens of thousands of residents lost power with trees and power lines tumbling, and the Brisbane CBD is being described as being like a ‘ghost town’.

The NSW SES has recorded over 3400 distress calls and has issued early warnings to evacuate thousands on the far north coast.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli is still warning residents and visitors to find safe places immediately and avoid going out.

“What is critical for people to understand across the large scale that we’re dealing with is you will experience (either) waves, wind, rainfall and/or flooding,” the Premier said.

“It’s important that Queenslanders prepare for that.”

“With every hour that approaches your window to get prepared closes, but you still do have time,” he said.

What we know about Cyclone Alfred on Friday morning

The weather front continues to move slowly towards the southeast Queensland coast. Rainfall and wind impacts are expected to continue increasing to an extreme level on Friday.

• Warning zones and areas affected: Double Island Point in Queensland to Grafton in New South Wales, including Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Byron Bay and Ballina but not including Grafton
• Intensity: Category 2, sustained winds near the centre of 95 kilometres per hour with wind gusts to 130 kilometres per hour
• Location: within 35 kilometres of 27.4 degrees South 155.0 degrees East, estimated to be 195 kilometres east of Brisbane and 180 kilometres east northeast of Gold Coast

What residents can expect in the next 48 hours

• Heavy rainfall bands are extending over the coastal areas of southeast Queensland and northeast New South Wales
• Dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding is expected as Alfred crosses the coast late Friday evening or early Saturday
• Abnormally high tides are likely to continue causing flooding of coastal low-lying areas between Double Island Point and Grafton, particularly during the Friday night (early Saturday)
• Damaging wind gusts to 120 kilometres per hour are occurring near the coast between Cape Moreton and Cape Byron

The next Bureau of Meteorology will deliver it’s next update at 8am AEDT on Friday.