.png)
1 day ago
5
Man missing after being swept from tree into flood waters, northern NSW
A search is under way after a man was washed into flood waters in northern NSW today.
At about 2:20pm, emergency services responded to reports of a 4WD being washed off a bridge into fast running water when crossing Wild Cattle Creek Bridge off Old Coramba Rd, Megan, according a NSW police media release.
The driver exited the vehicle and secured himself to a tree branch about 30m from the riverbank, and officers were able to communicate with the man, police said.
Shortly after 3pm the man was swept from the tree and seen going beneath the water, police said. He has not been sighted since.
Police and SES have conducted an initial search while awaiting aerial assistance.
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
Ima Caldwell
Melissa Garcia, owner of the Timbre coffee bar and community library on Dawson Street, Lismore, has removed everything inside to prepare for the cyclone’s impact.
“We’ve basically left the building like a shell, like bare bones, we physically took every little thing out of it except for the kitchen sink,” she said.
She said water crept over the second storey roof of the premises during the 2022 floods.
[There are] sandbags on the ground floor… we took the windows out because I guess this time we’re looking at a cyclone as well, so the threat’s coming from above and below.
Garcia said she had also helped other Lismore businesses move their equipment to safety, turning her warehouse into a makeshift storage unit.
She said locals had “rallied together” to evacuate and that by Thursday afternoon the surrounding shopfronts were already empty.
I drove around… and it was really like a ghost town.
It was actually kind of awesome to see at the same time because it felt like … Everybody’s just ready to see this through.
Ima Caldwell
Byron Bay residents reportedly prevented from filling sandbags at beach by national park ranger
Byron Bay residents say they have been prevented from filling sandbags with sand from a local beach by a NSW Parks and Wildlife ranger on Thursday morning, despite the imminent arrival of tropical cyclone Alfred.
One resident, who asked that his name not be used, said he had first tried to obtain sandbags from numerous official locations in the area to protect his home, but none were available.
He shared video footage showing the ranger confronting several people trying to collect sand at Broken Head beach.
He said the ranger told them:
It’s a national park, nothing is to be taken, and the sand is also part of it.
The man said the ranger was taking photos and recording vehicle registrations in the beach car park and that he began to follow them, saying: “I want to make sure you leave and don’t take any sand.”
The man said: “There were families, kids, people just trying to fill whatever they could with sand because there was none left in Byron.”
The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) website says it is illegal to remove or destroy plants “including picking flowers or collecting plants” and to remove “bushrock”.
The NPWS did not respond to a request for comment.
The before and after of beaches that are in the path of Tropical Cyclone Alfred approach – video
Cameras stationed by Swellnet to monitor swells on Australia’s east coast show the difference a couple of days can make when a tropical cyclone like Alfred approaches. The cameras record how eight beaches, in Queensland and New South Wales, change from Monday to Thursday.
Watch here:
BoM’s latest forecast
Here is the Bureau of Meteorology’s latest forecast, as of around 4pm today:
Tropical Cyclone Alfred is at Category 2, with sustained winds near the centre of 100km/hr and wind gusts up to 140km/h.
It is now 115km east south-east of Brisbane, and 90km east north-east of Gold Coast, moving west south-west at 7km/h.
The cyclone is likely to cross over the Moreton Bay Islands tomorrow morning, before crossing the mainland coast likely between Noosa and Beenleigh later in the day, BoM said.
Gold Coast emergency alert warns people to shelter under mattress and blankets if roofs blow off
More on the Gold Coast emergency alert: it warns residents of very strong winds knocking down trees and powerlines and blowing roofs off houses – “this is a risk to life,” the alert says.
The alert urges residents to take shelter in “the strongest part of the building you are in” and away from big windows, such as a bathroom, walk-in wardrobe or hallway. In the instance of flooding, “get up as high as you can where you are,” such as the kitchen bench or a second storey.
It instructs residents to cover any windows with a mattress or heavy blankets to protect from glass breaking.
“If the roof comes off, shelter under your mattress and blankets,” the alert continues.
Stay in your safe place. This could be for several hours.
The alert warns people to expect the following weather conditions:
-
The wind is very dangerous and will be very loud.
-
You may hear things breaking outside and hitting your house.
-
Winds could stop suddenly if the eye of the tropical cyclone goes over. Very dangerous winds could start again quickly from a different direction.
-
Very strong winds can knock down trees and powerlines, blow roofs off houses, and blow away anything not tied down outside. This is a risk to life.
-
Heavy rain will continue after the winds ease and this will make the flooding worse.
-
Power, phone, and internet will stop working. They could be out for a long time.
Emergency alert issued for coastal areas of the Gold Coast
Andrew Messenger
Residents from Broadbeach to Jacobs Well and South Stradbroke Island have been ordered to “take shelter now”.
Heavy rain and flooding continue after winds ease.
The alert was issued on behalf of the Gold Coast council at 3.29pm.
Man missing after being swept from tree into flood waters, northern NSW
A search is under way after a man was washed into flood waters in northern NSW today.
At about 2:20pm, emergency services responded to reports of a 4WD being washed off a bridge into fast running water when crossing Wild Cattle Creek Bridge off Old Coramba Rd, Megan, according a NSW police media release.
The driver exited the vehicle and secured himself to a tree branch about 30m from the riverbank, and officers were able to communicate with the man, police said.
Shortly after 3pm the man was swept from the tree and seen going beneath the water, police said. He has not been sighted since.
Police and SES have conducted an initial search while awaiting aerial assistance.
Graham Readfearn
Alfred going through ‘structural changes’ as it approaches, says expert
In the past few hours, there have been subtle changes in the Bureau of Meteorology’s track maps as Cyclone Alfred crawls its way towards the south-east Queensland coast.
The bureau is issuing hourly maps now and the area of expected landfall hasn’t changed a great deal, lining up roughly from Noosa on the Sunshine Coast to Beenleigh in Logan, just north of the Gold Coast.
But over the course of the last 12 hours or so, the timing of landfall has been changing.
The current map expects that to take place sometime around 10am on Saturday morning, Queensland time. When I woke this morning in Brisbane (yes, I’m there!) the expected landfall was about 1am Saturday.
Prof Liz Ritchie-Tyo is a cyclone expert at Monash University and she says Alfred has been performing a few manoeuvres, doing a loop-de-loop overnight and shifting slightly and wobbling in its track. She told me by email a few minutes ago:
The cyclone is still covering the same amount of distance, but the distance it has to cover to get to land is higher, and it will reach land later.
A lot of this is happening because there’s a lot of structural changes going on in the inner-most region of Alfred including its eye.
The bureau is tracking the very best centre – the point where the swirls all converge – that it can, but that point is swirling around within the larger eye, and Alfred’s eye has been quite large.
Picture a marble in the bottom of a bowl. Sometimes the marble sits in the bottom and moves with the rest of the bowl and sometimes it swirls around.
Ritchie-Tyo said there had also been some “structural rearrangement” with the re-development of thunderstorms on the north-west side of the eye causing it to shift around and slow down.
With all that said, the impacts are already very widespread, with flooding in northern New South Wales with evacuations taking place, and destructive winds starting to ramp up in those places with warnings in Moreton Bay and the Gold Coast that people should now be staying at home.
Woman hospitalised in serious but stable condition after Sydney shark attack
Moving away from the cyclone for a moment – the woman who was attacked by a shark in Sydney’s south has been hospitalised and is in a serious but stable condition.
NSW police said at about 1.30pm today, emergency services were called to Gunyah Beach near Bundeena after reports of a shark attack.
A woman, believed to be in her 50s, was treated by paramedics at the scene for serious leg injuries.
NSW Ambulance said she has been hospitalised in serious but stable condition.
Health staff to camp out at hospitals during cyclone
Andrew Messenger
Scores or hundreds of Queensland health staff will camp out at hospitals during the cyclone to keep the health system operating.
It’s not expected to be safe to drive during the cyclone itself, so many staff are remaining in place. Health staff have told Guardian Australia that there are hundreds of beds made up in some hospitals.
A spokesperson for Queensland Health said it is “taking important steps to prevent unnecessary travel”.
This includes communicating with staff about their shifts and providing on-site accommodation to essential workers for their safety and to reduce disruption to patient care.
This is not an unusual experience in North Queensland, but Tropical Cyclone Alfred is the first in 50 years to make landfall in Brisbane.
People across northern NSW and south-east QLD brace for tropical cyclone Alfred – video
With Tropical Cyclone Alfred expected to make landfall in south-east Queensland on Saturday morning, people across the region and in northern New South Wales are bracing for impact. Heavy winds and flooding have already started to batter towns like Lismore, Ballina and Coolangatta. Almost 30,000 homes in NSW have been ordered to evacuate, while 20,000 properties in Brisbane are at risk of inundation.
Watch more here:
Supermarkets to begin closing from this afternoon: Queensland deputy premier
Queensland supermarkets will begin to shut from this afternoon, the deputy premier said:
As we have been told by the Bureau of Meteorology, Tropical Cyclone Alfred is likely to hit shore or land midday tomorrow and then it is important for the workers of the supermarkets to be where they need to be, as safe as possible.
For Queenslanders, you will progressively see supermarkets closing, including your local groceries and supermarkets. But … shout out to all the workers who have come back to work to keep supermarkets open for as long as possible in the preparation for Tropical Cyclone Alfred hitting the shores.
Telecommunications coverage lost for some Gold Coast suburbs
Some Gold Coast suburbs have lost telecommunication coverage after 26 mobile base stations lost power and ran out of battery, Chelepy said.
Those locations include Bilinga, Bilinga North, Binna Burra, Burleigh Waters, Coolangatta, O’Reilly’s, Parkwood, Bundle, Reedy Creek, Mudgeeraba, Karumba and Springbrook.
“NBN outages which affect the landlines are also occurring and those same areas,” Chelepy said.
The moment it is safe to do so, our telcos, which we have been engaged with, will get into those errors and try to get generation to those stations.
No missing persons or loss of life amid cyclone, acting police commissioner says
The acting police commissioner Shane Chelepy says there has been no loss of life and there are no missing persons amid the cyclone event. He gave an update alongside the Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, and authorities a short while ago.
More requests for assistance are coming through, however, as rain intensifies, including reports of large trees damaging cars and other infrastructure.
“We expect this to continue as the cyclone continues to track towards the coast,” Chelepy says.
He also said severe erosion has occurred along beaches, particularly around Main Beach, and police are assisting council with road closures and exclusion zones around affected areas – including viewing boardwalks and lifeguard towers.
ADF personnel supporting SES in northern NSW, McAllister says
Australian Defence Force personnel have been deployed to support the SES in the NSW Northern Rivers region, McAllister said.
I know that many people, many Queenslanders will be thinking of the people to the south of the border, the people in the Northern Rivers who have been evacuated from their homes.
We have to acknowledge a difficult 24 hours for many of those communities. I’ve spoken this morning to a number of the political leaders that I know well in that area. I think they is a sense of pride and confidence in the way that those communities are handling those issues, but nonetheless we are thinking of them.
It is important that the ADF has been deployed to support the SES in that area.
Two helicopters from the national aerial fleet are positioned in Coffs Harbour and Bundaberg to provide support to affected QLD and NSW regions as Tropical Cyclone Alfred nears, says Jenny McAllister, the federal emergency management minister.
She gave an update on the cyclone alongside the Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, and authorities a short while ago.
Risk of flooding will continue into next week, BoM says
Flood watches remain in place from the Mary River through Sunshine Coast creeks and rivers, the Pine and Caboolture rivers, Gold Coast creeks and rivers, as well as the upper and lower Brisbane and the Condamine, McIntyre and Weir rivers. A major flood warning is current for the Logan Rivers.
“We are seeing river rises in that system where the rainfall has been concentrated as I said, over the past 24-36 hours,” Matthew Collopy from the BoM says.
