Cyclone Alfred latest updates: More than 250,000 homes without power as ‘life-threatening’ storm nears land

The “extremely rare” Tropical Cyclone Alfred is causing severe travel disruption in the country as it draws near to the southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales coasts.

The area covered by the Cyclone Alfred warning zone stretches approximately 450-500 km along the east coast of Australia, from Double Island Point in Queensland to Ballina in New South Wales.

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, according to ABC news.

“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.”

As Tropical Cyclone Alfred barrels toward Australia’s eastern coast, residents from Brisbane to northern New South Wales are bracing for a storm event not seen in over half a century.

The cyclone, currently a Category 2 system, is expected to make landfall between Noosa and Coolangatta, north of Brisbane, late on Friday or early Saturday, bringing destructive winds, life-threatening flooding, and coastal erosion to some of Australia’s most densely populated areas.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, Alfred could possibly reach a Category 3 status but the chances of that remain low. However, the storm was expected to remain on the stronger end of Category 2 when it makes landfall.

Read our Asia climate correspondent Stuti Mishra’s report.

Two people narrowly escaped a large tree falling on their home in the Currumbin Valley, Gold Coast, on Thursday night.

The couple were lying only inches from where the tree came to rest in their bedroom, police said.

“Thankfully, both patients sustained only minor injuries,” Queensland Ambulance Service said in a statement.

Initially expected to make landfall late Thursday or early Friday, the latest forecast shows Alfred is now moving at a speed of just 7kmph, slowed down by half of its speed on Wednesday.

The storm may not reach the coast until early Saturday now, meaning millions in southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales will endure damaging winds, torrential rain, and dangerous surf conditions for much longer than anticipated.

Australia’s prime minister Anthony Albanese ruled out calling a national election for April on Sunday or Monday, as had been expected, so his government can focus on an approaching cyclone in Queensland state.

A national election must be held by mid-May, and had been expected for April so the government could avoid delivering a national budget forecast to show a deficit”It is our intention to serve full term,” Mr Albanese said in a television interview with the ABC News on Friday evening.

The preparation work had been done to deliver a budget on 25 March, he said.

“I have no intention of doing anything that distracts from what we need to do. And what we need to do is to look after each other at this difficult time,” Mr Albanese added.

Ominous grey clouds covered Brisbane’s skyline ahead of Cyclone Alfred’s landfall Saturday morning.

According to the latest update, Alfred is located 95km east of Brisbane and 75km north-east of the Gold Coast.

Devastating winds and rain have caused widespread impacts on Australia’s largest telecoms providers, including Telstra and Optus.

Telstra – the biggest and most widely used network – said power outages have impacted some of its phone and landline services, especially in southern parts of Gold Coast and northern New South Wales.

“We know this is a tough time and we urge everyone to stay safe and thank them for their patience,” a spokesperson said.

As many as 46 mobile phone sites, 2,769 landline services and more than 1,000 ADSL services had been disrupted as of Friday evening.

Optus, the second-largest provider, said 52 mobile sites lost connection due to power failures in affected areas as of 5pm, adding that it was providing fixed and mobile generators.

General manager Nick Channell said: “At this stage, we don’t know how long it will take to resolve services, but we are prioritising our resources to address impacted areas.

“The safety and well-being of our customers and employees are of the utmost importance as we work as quickly as possible to restore services.”He said emergency calls to Triple Zero should still work.

Queensland premier David Crisafulli said the number of power outages has now crossed 60,000 homes and that figure is expected to rise.

He told ABC 7.30 “there will never be enough generators to plug the holes” and the number has risen only in the last few moments – “so that gives you a degree of how large that scale is”.

“We have prepositioned generators in some of the key areas. The moment it is safe, they will be turned on to some of those key infrastructure. The real work is reconnecting so you can get permanent power supply,” he said.

He said about 1,200 workers from state-owned Energex are prepositioned.

“The moment it is safe, the moment that system goes through, they will be on the ground. There will be teams clearing vegetation while they are hooking up that power,” he added

The Bureau of Meteorology’s latest tracking map indicates that Tropical Cyclone Alfred is now forecast to make landfall on the mainland at 8 am local time tomorrow.

The system has gained speed since earlier predictions suggested a later morning arrival and is currently moving at 7 kmh.

At present, Alfred is located 105km south-east of Brisbane and 75km north-east of the Gold Coast. When it reaches Brisbane, it is expected to be classified as a Category 1 cyclone.