Cyclone Alfred live updates: Storm already ‘packing a punch’ as 100k without power across Gold Coast and NSW

The Redlands Satellite Health Centre has temporarily closed due to the risk of flooding, Queensland premier David Crisafulli has confirmed. While the facility is shut as a precaution, critical medical equipment has been relocated to ensure it remains safe. All other hospitals continue to operate and are open for emergency care.

The Queensland Fire Department has responded to 20 incidents today, while police have received 76 calls for assistance.

Authorities have also reported that 59 roads on the Gold Coast have been impacted by the severe weather.

Emergency crews have door-knocked 9,000 homes to warn residents about the potential dangers.

In response to the worsening conditions, councils have now declared 30 disaster refuges across the region.

Queensland premier David Crisafulli said the major concern at the moment is the significant erosion on the beaches along the Gold Coast.

“We still don’t have reports of inundation, which is tremendous,” he said in a press briefing.

“I have an update regarding some significant erosion, to the rock wall on the coast.

“There’s extreme erosion between the Southport Surf Lifesaving club and Narrow Neck, and the council engineers are actually assessing the damage at the moment, but there is some real risk to some of those council assets, including some of the stairs and the viewing platforms.”

He warned of some real risk to some of those council assets and said some people were still in the danger zones, requiring rescue.

“Council is in the process of trying to cordon of that area and the acting [police] commissioner has only just tasked some resources from police as well, but the message to people, surely, is standing on a viewing platform in the middle of an event like this is not something you should be doing.”

Lithuanian rower Aurimas Mockus collapsed in relief as he embraced his wife for the first time since being rescued from the dangerous waters stirred up by Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

Bearing visible cuts and bruises, the 44-year-old described the ordeal as feeling like he was trapped inside a washing machine while waiting for help to arrive.

Mr Mockus was on a rowing journey from San Diego to Brisbane when he found himself in the path of the powerful system off the Queensland coast.

Amid fierce winds reaching 100kmph and towering waves between 5 and 7 metres, he sent out a distress signal last week. He was contacted next day and rescued.

“I spent that time wet in my boat rolling around — I rolled maybe 30 times, maybe more,” he said.

“The last three days in my boat I was fighting for my life because my boat was sinking and all navigation was going off.

“I only had VHF radio [and] I had a lot of problems with my body.”

An hourly update on the movement of Cyclone Alfred shows that it is 90km east of Gold Coast and 125km east of Brisbane.

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said it is moving south-west at a speed of 8kmph and that it will likely cross the coast of the mainland later on Saturday.

Tens of thousands of homes and businesses remain without power across southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales as Cyclone Alfred continues to batter the region.

Energy provider Energex reported that outages in southeast Queensland had risen to 46,036 customers from 39,129 earlier in the day.

In New South Wales, Essential Energy’s latest update indicated 43,000 properties were affected, though officials later confirmed this had been reduced to just over 36,000.

In total, at least 82,000 properties across both states remain without electricity as the cyclone disrupts infrastructure and intensifies weather conditions.

Heavy rains drenched some regions in northern New South Wales ahead of Cyclone Alfred’s landfall on Saturday, with more than 400mm dumped over the last 48 hours, exceeding the mean total for March, data showed, as residents scrambled to save properties from possible flooding.

New South Wales business owner Thomas Gough has been busy putting sandbags at his shop in Lismore, a rural town of about 700km (435 miles) north of Sydney devastated by major floods in 2022.

“It’s a beautiful place to live most of the time, but it feels like we have one-in-100-year events every five years – there’s nothing we can do about it,” Mr Gough told ABC News.

TV footage showed surfers riding the huge seas and people strolling near beaches, forcing officials to warn residents to stay indoors or prepare to evacuate when asked.

“This isn’t a time for sightseeing or for seeing what it’s like to experience these conditions firsthand. Please stay safe. Be sensible,” prime minister Anthony Albanese said.

Mr Albanese told reporters that 120 defence personnel would help emergency crews with rescue and relief efforts.

More than 20,000 homes in the tourist city of Gold Coast are without power, Queensland premier David Crisafulli said.

As Cyclone Alfred nears Brisbane, most residents will take shelter indoors, but more than 1,300 people facing homelessness remain vulnerable to the dangerous conditions.

With heavy rain and destructive winds expected late on Friday, support workers are racing against time to bring those sleeping rough to safety.

Karyn Walsh, chief executive of the non-profit organisation Micah Projects, said the urgency of the situation was being met with disbelief.

“Every time we tell people it’s urgent, they don’t believe us,” Ms Walsh told Australian Broadcast Corporation.

Many homeless individuals lack access to news updates and may not realise the risks of staying outdoors.

“People won’t see the danger, and with a cyclone, you need to come inside before the storm,” she added.

“It’s really hard to convey it to people, and you just have to keep going back. But we will keep going back as long as it is safe to drive.”

In preparation, staff and volunteers have been removing tents from open spaces such as Musgrave Park, while the Northwest Community Group has set up emergency shelters with around 100 air mattresses.

“There are those that have gone in early, but there are those who won’t go anywhere until there is imminent danger,” Ms Walsh said. “Because it isn’t raining yet, people think they still have time.”

Thousands of residents in Australia’s east were ordered to evacuate ahead of Tropical Cyclone Alfred’s landfall on Saturday as the storm brought heavy rains, huge waves and strong winds that cut off power, eroded beaches and closed airports.

Alfred has been moving slowly toward the coast raising concerns it could result in a longer and prolonged period of heavy rainfall. It is still expected to land as a Category 2 storm north of Brisbane, Australia’s third-most populous city, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

Wind gusts of more than 100kmph smashed the coastal border regions of the states of Queensland and New South Wales overnight, while the storm sits around 200 km offshore, the weather bureau said.

“Overnight we saw it packed a punch,” Queensland premier David Crisafulli said.

“You will continue to see the winds during the course of today but then there is that rain and often in cyclones, that rainfall, lots of it in a short window can also be really problematic,” Mr Crisafulli told ABC News.

Uncertainty remains over whether residents in Brisbane’s low-lying areas can park their cars at shopping centres for free to protect them from potential flooding.

Queensland premier David Crisafulli urged businesses to support those seeking refuge for their vehicles.

“Let me answer it this way, if someone takes the initiative to go and put their car into a safe place, I would hope that they are supported in that journey,” Mr Crisafulli said at a press conference.

“And we want everyone to be good corporate citizens and good community citizens at the moment,” Sydney Morning Herald quoted him as saying.

A spokesperson for Scentre Group, which operates Westfield shopping centres, confirmed that parking was free at locations within the cyclone warning zone on Thursday.

However, they cautioned that they could not guarantee the safety of vehicles stored there during or after the cyclone.