Alfred Weakens to Tropical Low After Causing Havoc in Australia

(Bloomberg) -- Alfred weakened to a tropical low as it approached the coastline near Brisbane, Australia’s third largest city, but still threatened to bring high winds and flooding to the region.

Alfred was just off sparsely populated Bribie Island north of Brisbane early Saturday local time and was set to make landfall on the mainland in a few hours. Its winds had dropped to 55 kilometers (34 miles) per hour with gusts of 85 kph, according to an advisory from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. 

Alfred “has slowed and is starting to have some impact,” National Emergency Management Agency Deputy Coordinator Joe Buffone earlier said at a press conference in Canberra, next to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. “Probably about 4 million are actually being directly affected” by the system.

The storm, which would be the first to make landfall in southeast Queensland since 1974, had originally been forecast to cross the coast on Thursday. Delays have given authorities and residents more time to prepare, though the slow-moving nature of the system means that heavy rains have saturated large sections of the coastline.

The Gold Coast tourism hub south of Brisbane has recorded record wave heights of above 12 meters (39 feet), creating erosion and threatening homes. 

The Bureau of Meteorology warned that Alfred could deliver intense rainfall, life-threatening flash flooding, and abnormally high tides.

More than 280,000 customers have lost power so far in Queensland and New South Wales, distributors Energex and Essential Energy said Saturday. Dozens of communities have been ordered to evacuate, and airports and ports in the region have shuttered. Brisbane — a city of 2.5 million that’s due to host the Olympic Games in 2032 — resembles a ghost town, with electronic street signs telling people to “stay home”.

Lismore, a small inland city in northern New South Wales, is among communities enduring evacuations, with authorities warning flood levels there could reach 17 meters (56 feet). That’s higher than the floods it endured in 2022, which killed five people. 

Some scientific research suggests rising temperatures are causing tropical cyclones to shift toward the Earth’s poles, delivering extreme weather in places not accustomed to managing such hazards. Areas in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales are among locations that face growing threats, Climate Risk Group said in a statement. 

“The science tells us that there would be more extreme weather events, they would be more frequent and they would be more intense,” Albanese said. “Anyone who looks at the science knows that that is what is occurring.”

Australia’s Treasurer Jim Chalmers warned Thursday that Alfred would likely cause “billions and billions of dollars” of damage.

(Updates intensity in first paragraph)

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