Cyclone Alfred live updates: Brisbane, Queensland and NSW BoM path tracking map; landfall time and category; weather forecasts TC Alfred rain and flooding warnings – latest Australia news

The spokesperson says they’ve received 77 jobs overnight, 45 on the Gold Coast and the majority of these requests were for storm damage and structural damage, leaky roofs, tarping and assisting the community with their residence.

There are also a large number of traffic lights out as a result of power outages so he warned people to be careful if they are travelling on roadways today.

The SES Queensland spokesperson confirms there has been no loss of life and no missing persons as a result of this flood event in the state. However, he detailed some of the incidents that did occur including an evacuation of an apartment complex:

Overnight we responded to a large number of jobs with trees down damaging houses, in suburbs such as Elanora, Robena, Mount Cotton, Eden’s Landing. We’ve seen a lot of vegetation down, power lines down right across the Gold Coast and Brisbane areas.

We did see an a apartment complex in Labrador on the Gold Coast suffer damage. 21 persons were safely evacuated from that apartment complex and are now in our evacuation centres with one lady suffering minor injuries, but she is in good health.

There were no significant reports of damage to houses or infrastructure on Stradbroke, Moreton Island or our lower bay islands, as the tropical cyclone passed over that area, although we do probably expect, as people come out to inspect their houses, return to the islands, inspect their businesses – we will see reports of minor damages moving forward.

Collopy summarises the flood warnings as follows, with major flood warnings current for the Bremer River and Worral Creek:

That heavy to intense rainfall is expected to produce the risk of dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding, and widespread minor to major Riverine flooding across much of the South East.

Flood watches remain in place for the Mary River, the creeks and rivers at the Sunshine Coast, the Pine and Caboolture rivers, the Gold Coast rivers and creeks, the upper and lower Brisbane catchments, as well as the Condamine, McIntyre and Weir rivers.

A major flood warning is current for the Logan and Albert rivers with moderate to major flooding possible from later today and we are seeing sharp river rises through the Logan-Albert River system. Major flood warnings are also now current for the Bremer River and Worral Creek with major flooding possible from later in the weekend, depending on the forecast rainfall.

Collopy says rainfall and flooding are the “key risk as we move forward”:

Rainfall totals of over 250 millimetres have already been observed around the Scenic Rim and we’ve seen widespread totals of 100 to 200 millimetres both on the Gold Coast, but also stretching up into the southern parts of Brisbane.

As the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Alfred moves inland, we will see more tropical moisture streaming across South East Queensland and we are expecting widespread totals of 300-500 millimetres, with localised amounts of 800 millimetres-plus possible in some areas of South East Queensland, particularly again around the southern part of where ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred tracks.

Collopy says there is no longer a risk of a significant storm surge:

Although the winds have eased, the large swell and wave conditions will continue along the Queensland coast. We will see those ease as we move into Sunday and Monday, but ongoing coastal erosion is likely. There is no longer a risk of a significant storm surge, and sea levels are not expected to exceed the normal highest tides.

Now Matthew Collopy from the Queensland Bureau of Meteorology is now giving an update following the premier:

Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred is now expected to move inland over the coming 12-24 hours, and by this evening it will move north of Toowoomba and further inland this evening.

A severe weather warning remains in place across the South East, with the risk of locally heavy to intense rainfall and the potential for damaging wind gusts continuing.

The primary concern within the severe weather warning is for those locally intense and very heavy rainfall amounts, but there is also the chance of damaging wind gusts with the system, or with the rain showers and thunderstorms as the system moves inland.

Queensland experiences power outages equal to ‘single biggest loss in over a decade’

Crisafulli says “the big challenge in the next few days is rainfall.”

Just to give you an indication of what occurred in the past 19 hours, we’ve had 240 millimetres recorded at Springbrook, 200 millimetres at Tallebudgera and 100 millimetres at Mount Cotton. The challenges now: Flash flooding, creek rises. They remain a real possibility with some of the rainfall predicted in the day as head. We have to be ready for that prospect. With swollen catchments, the risk of flash flooding remains.

Crisafulli says when it comes to waves “this is where the good news of this story is.”

As the system didn’t cross the coast on high tide, those prospects of storm tide inundation, Queenslanders were spared from that. To have no homes reported still right now that have had storm tide inundation is really a tremendous, tremendous result. We have seen some extreme erosion because of it, on the beaches, and we’ve spoken about what that looks like to some of the key infrastructure to the beaches, particularly on the Gold Coast, but the fact that we have avoided the storm tide surge is a great story in all of this.

Queensland premier says winds of 107km/h recorded

Crisafulli says there are “four key challenges – waves, wind, rainfall and flooding”.

Giving an update on wind he says:

Overnight, we recorded some wind speeds, including 107km/h at the seaway, 93km/h at the Brisbane airport and 85km/h at Redcliffe.

We have seen some damage to some buildings. We’ve seen the loss of a roof off one of the apartment buildings, one of the older buildings on the Gold Coast. We’ve had quite a few instances of trees falling on homes, cars and power lines.

David Crisafulli gives cyclone update

The Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, has stood up in Brisbane with an update. He begins with a summary of what’s happened to the system so far:

At 10pm last night, just off the coast of the bay islands, Cyclone Alfred was a category 2 until midnight, when it was downgraded to a category 1. At about 1am this morning it crossed over Moreton Island, somewhere around about Tangalooma, and just over an hour ago, so around 6am, the category 1 system was downgraded to a tropical low, and remains as a low just off the coast near Bribie Island.

Weather bureau says heavy rainfall accumulating

Miriam Bradbury, senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, has been giving an update to ABC saying that ex-tropical cyclone Alfred is still expected to cross the coast in the next couple of hours.

It’s still slow moving, but the more slow moving it is the more of an opportunity it actually has to bring in that heavy rain and continue to direct it along the coast. But focusing on that coastal crossing is sort of overlooking the fact that we’re likely to see these heavy rainfall totals continuing after it’s made its crossing as well.

Bradbury said there had been fairly widespread rainfall totals in the overnight period of more than 120-130mm, bringing totals above half a meter for some parts of north-east NSW:

The top rainfall totals – more isolated – have been in excess of 200 to 250mm, and this is on top of a couple of very wet days previously. So those rainfall accumulations are really mounting up, probably above half a meter at this point for some parts of north-east New South Wales.

NBN hit by 130,000 service outages

NBN says the severe weather has led to about 130,000 service outages across their fixed line and wireless networks.

In south-east Queensland there about 110,000 services out, and in northern NSW 20,000 with affected suburbs listed here.

NBN said power outages are the main reason for disruptions with services likely to be restored when mains power is back.

Fears south Lismore levee about to break

Alfred downgraded to a tropical low

NSW SES responds to more than 5,000 incidents as 16,200 evacuate homes

The New South Wales SES have responded to more than 5,062 incidents from Tropical Cyclone Alfred affecting the northern rivers and mid north coast of NSW.

As of 5am, Saturday 8 March, about 16,200 people have been told to evacuate while about 31,400 homes are subject to flood warnings.