As darkness fell over Brisbane on Sunday night rain continued to batter the city, hampering efforts to remove trees felled by Storm Alfred, with flash floods and ongoing power outages reported across the region.
Doireann O Bradaigh from Byron Shire Council in New South Wales (NSW) was one of those without power, having seen the lights first go out on Friday night.
It had been a tense few days before that, with her community watching the cyclone swell come in since.
She said the eye of the storm had been predicted to make landfall near Brisbane but the real impact was felt further south across the border in northern NSW, with severe flooding reported.
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She expressed concern that the continuing rain would bring more flooding and more evacuations in the area.
Stephen Hanley moved to Brisbane as the curtain came down on 2020 and he told The Irish Times that the level of disruption in Queensland this week reminded him of the Covid lockdowns in Dublin before he left.
Alfred’s arrival was delayed several times as he danced around the coral sea, and by Friday evening videos were emerging of bored surfers on the swells of the Gold Coast, much to the annoyance of authorities
— Stephen Hanley
He, his wife and three children live on the crest of a hill at the edge of an extensive bushland reserve that had borne the brunt of a cyclone in 1974 when three nearby houses were destroyed.
“Their vacant blocks sit as an evergreen reminder,” he said.
A “rain bomb” in 2022 damaged many of his neighbours’ homes, with some only just finishing the repairs now.
[ Ex-Cyclone Alfred: One dead and mass blackouts after tropical low hits AustraliaOpens in new window ]
“At least this time round we got warning, and earlier this week we were told to prepare our properties – in particular clearing anything that might become a missile,” he said. “The din of hammers and drills filled the air for much of the week [and] cars queued at the local State Emergency Service depot for sandbags.”
He said Cyclone Alfred’s arrival was “delayed several times as he danced around the coral sea, and by Friday evening videos were emerging of bored surfers on the swells of the Gold Coast, much to the annoyance of authorities”.
He recalled how high winds rattled his windows on Friday night, and expressed relief that his family escaped the worst of the storm – with flooding the primary concern now.
Baz McAlister has been living in Brisbane for 20 years and expected chaos, based on all the early warnings.
“What we got was a very strange weather system that was nowhere near as bad as I was envisioning. We were well prepared for it, and our leaders, weather agencies and emergency services approached the situation with an overabundance of caution. In the end, though, it seemed a lot of fuss over a bit of wind and rain that would be considered fairly unremarkable for the Causeway Coast on any given dirty winter night! A lucky escape for most.”
He said flooding in the region was “getting pretty bad even where I am and the system is sitting over us and will be for the rest of the night, but in terms of the wind, I think we have been spared the worst of it”.
Nicola Holly of the Irish Australian Support Association of Queensland said the cyclone has had “a significant impact on many communities”.
She said things have been “a bit manic” since late last week, with “a lot of flooding around the place. The rain has been non-stop and there are a lot of trees down. And half the city is without power”.
Her association has been forced to close its offices, with staff working remotely, and they “had to make the difficult decision to cancel our annual charity ball which was scheduled for March 8th. Everyone was worried about the impending weather event”.
She said it had been an “eerie few days, with the anticipation of the cyclone affecting basically every facet of people’s lives, but we are grateful that it taught us how to be more prepared”.
